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About Ed Barks

Ed Barks is on a mission—to make public speaking pain-free for today’s leaders.

Ed is the trainer, author, and speaker who teaches professionals from all walks of life how to deliver dynamic, message-packed presentations and how to work with the media. For years, he has taught professionals from CEOs to front-line supervisors how to shake the jitters that strike every time they step up to deliver a presentation.

Thousands of business leaders, association executives, government officials, non-profit leaders, physicians, athletes, entertainers, and public relations pros can thank Ed for a sharper message and enhanced communications skills.

Ed is the author of The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations. He has also written two guides for his clients: Face the Press with Confidence: The Media Interview Companion and Keep the Audience on Your Side: The Public Speaking Companion.

In addition, his articles spotlighting important communications training issues appear frequently in journals such as Public Relations Tactics, the monthly publication of the Public Relations Society of America.

Ed lives in the Washington, D.C., area, which he has called home for nearly two decades. He first arrived in the nation’s capital in 1981, serving as a Capitol Hill intern for Senator George Mitchell, who wrote a foreword for The Truth About Public Speaking.

Following his graduation from the University of Southern Maine (he is eternally proud of his summa cum laude degree in Political Science and Economics), he returned to the nation’s capital, providing his communications expertise to such organizations as the National Clean Air Coalition and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Time and again, his efforts resulted in coverage by major newspapers and television and radio networks. He knows how to build messages for a broad range of issues, from health care to the environment to complex financial matters and more.

In 1997, Ed founded Barks Communications, and remains its President. His company is the embodiment of his goal to teach business, association, government, and non-profit leaders how to deliver great presentations, work with the media, and put forward winning legislative and regulatory testimony. Ed has counseled Fortune 500 companies and budding entrepreneurs in a vast array of fields from health care to technology to financial services.

He is one of those rare birds who truly enjoys speaking before an audience. Although he admits to experiencing pre-speech jitters, he treats them as an energy form that simply needs to be redirected to the positive.

Ed’s eyes light up when his clients give him glowing reviews. They say he “knows how to elicit peak performance.” They call him “a master at connecting with his audience” and “an effective educator,” and give his communications training workshops “two thumbs up!”

He admits to being humbled when influential readers praise his book—such as when Senator Mitchell said, “The Truth About Public Speaking offers advice that aids speakers whether they plan to address the local United Way chapter or the United Nations.” Or when veteran sports executive and author Pat Williams wrote, “I am here to tell you this book can make a difference in your career and your life whether you are a business executive, athlete, philanthropic leader, even a politician.”

How did Ed get so smart about broadcasting a message to the public? He spent a decade as a radio broadcaster and journalist. That experience sharpened his own speaking abilities, an important trait for one who coaches others on presentation skills.

He knows firsthand the tricks and techniques of the reporting trade, an essential perspective to clients seeking counsel on how to deal with the media. As a broadcast insider, Ed gives his clients the scoop on how reporters think, what they need, and when they need it.

During his tenure as news director at WCLZ in Portland, Maine, and as a reporter at WHCN in Hartford, Connecticut, Ed covered such events as the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City and the nation’s Bicentennial celebration in Philadelphia.

Ed claims he wouldn’t trade a single moment of his radio and marketing communication experiences, “except for those two times the radio stations changed format and drained every ounce of creativity from the art form.” With that as his biggest complaint in life, he considers himself most fortunate, indeed.

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