What can brands learn from the real-life ‘scandal’ fixer? The Drum sits down with the American crisis manager at Cannes Lions.

February 26, 2025
Read it all on The Drum

The Drum sat down with crisis manager Judy Smith at Cannes Lions to explore what brands can learn from the real-life inspiration behind Scandal’s Olivia Pope, and the throughline is clear: today’s risk environment moves faster, hits harder, and is inseparable from culture – so leaders need sharper situational awareness, real preparation, and the discipline to listen before they react; Smith shares how she helps executives identify their “nightmare scenarios” before they happen, why some controversies require a response while others are best met with strategic restraint, and what credibility looks like when a brand genuinely misses the mark.

Judy Smith — inspiration for ‘Scandal’ TV series — on her path to the White House
March 3, 2026

From riding past in her father’s taxicab to working inside the Oval Office, crisis management expert Judy Smith tells the little-known story of her path to becoming the first Black woman to brief the White House press corps. Smith, CEO of Smith & Company and the inspiration for Shonda Rhimes’s hit series “Scandal,” tells Yahoo

How the real Olivia Pope would have handled the CrowdStrike outage
March 1, 2026

Fast Company sought out crisis manager Judy Smith ( the real-world inspiration behind Scandal’s Olivia Pope ) to unpack what the CrowdStrike outage reveals about high-stakes leadership when the world is watching; drawing on decades advising world leaders and Fortune 500 CEOs, Smith highlights the pivotal decisions that shape trust in the first hours, the

A Conversation with Stan Mcchrystal & Judy Smith
January 9, 2026

In this one-of-a-kind interview, Stan McChrystal, a retired four-star general and CEO of McChrystal Group, and Judy Smith, a trusted expert in crisis management, explore the critical elements of leading through crisis. These renowned leaders offer guidance for handling high-stakes situations with transparency, integrity, and agility. Their combined experiences provide a powerful framework and perspective