Tom basile
principal
team leader, strategic communications

Tom Basile’s work in the worlds of business, government, and media have made him a trusted senior-level strategist.

For more than 20 years he has provided strategic and crisis communications and organizational development counsel to companies, government agencies, and non-profits. From crafting effective messaging and content development to jumpstarting on-the-ground operations and managing crises, Basile’s work has ensured his clients grow, adapt and face the future with confidence. His record of results has ensured the brand growth and development of organizations big and small.  Basile’s strategies and hands-on approach have garnered international attention for his clients in the world’s most influential media outlets.

Basile previously served as Managing Director of Middleberg Communications where he provided a range of counsel to companies in the consumer products, tech, environmental and legal sectors as well as businesses wishing to communicate about CSR and sustainability programs. He was tapped to be the Director of the Office of Communications for the US EPA in 2001 and later as an advisor to the Coalition government in Baghdad, Iraq, for which he received the Joint Civilian Service Commendation.

The former host of ‘Sunday in America’ on SiriusXM Radio, and an opinion contributor to Forbes from 2012-2018, his insights into a wide range of issues are read across the country and have earned him a reputation for credibility, candor and common sense.

His bestselling, critically-acclaimed book Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq (Potomac, 2017), gives readers his personal account of the Iraq mission during the critical first year after the fall of Saddam Hussein and the daily battle to communicate about the war to an American public increasingly opposed to the mission.

Basile is also an adjunct professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where he teaches earned media strategy. He sits on the Advisory Boards of the Hofstra University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs.

He served as a lead planner for the Department of State of the historic visit of former Presidents Bush and Clinton to the tsunami-ravaged areas of South Asia.

During the Bush Presidency, he was often called upon by the White House to help plan significant meetings and events for President Bush including the memorial service for the Space Shuttle Columbia Astronauts in Houston, the President’s 2002 meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, activities surrounding the 57th United Nation’s General Assembly and Bush’s visit to the Nazi concentration camps outside Krakow, Poland.

In 1997, he was named to the National Italian-American Foundation’s 100 Stars List of prominent young Italian-Americans. In 2008 he was invested into the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Today he serves on the organization’s Board for the Eastern United States. In 2010 Basile was named to The Capitol Newspaper’s 40 Under 40 list of New York influencers.

Basile earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Hofstra and received his Juris Doctorate attending Fordham and Georgetown University Schools of Law. He is a member of the New York Bar. He and his wife Carrie have three young children and a golden retriever named Brooke.