Derek Gaunt is a lecturer, trainer, and author of Ego, Authority, Failure©. He has 29 years of law enforcement experience, 20 of which he served as a team member, leader, and then commander of hostage negotiations teams in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He is a hostage negotiation and incident command subject-matter expert who frequently speaks at hostage negotiation and SWAT conferences across the country.

Derek’s passion for interpersonal communications began when he was selected as a detective in the Criminal Investigations Section of a municipal police agency. He spent the majority of his law enforcement career in this section as a detective, supervisor, and eventually commander of major crimes.

In 1997, he took his passion for interpersonal communications to the next level, becoming a hostage negotiator. Once he became a supervisor, his passion transitioned to teaching negotiation concepts to others. As a member of the Black Swan Group, he is a negotiation trainer and personal coach.

Derek has trained throughout the US and around the world, instructing organizations on how to apply hostage negotiation practices and principles to their business. Derek presents seminars and in-house training programs in a variety of environments.

His presentations are engaging and filled with useful techniques for understanding human behavior and navigating difficult conversations. His training has helped leaders and their organizations improve their performance by changing the way they think about communicating with others.