Jonna Mendez was the CIA’s Head of Disguise (and She’s Speaking at Dent 2020)
Jonna Mendez will be speaking at Dent 2020 in Santa Fe, NM (March 22-25). You can request an invitation here.
The theme of Dent 2020 is Reinvention.
That might mean reinventing your career, your product, your team, or your business model.
But with Former CIA Head of Disguise Jonna Mendez, the reinvention is literal: she disguised spies, making them nearly unrecognizable. We can’t wait to hear her ripped-from-the-blockbusters stories at Dent 2020 in Santa Fe, March 22-25 2020.
Jonna Mendez served in the CIA for over 25 years, rising to the position of Chief of Disguise, running a multi-million-dollar program with staff positioned all over the world. Her specialties were identity transformation, disguise, and clandestine photography (including spy gadgets like tiny cameras in pens!).
She and her husband (Antonio J. Mendez, also a CIA officer)have written three books together. First, SpyDust about their work against the Soviets in Moscow during the lastdecade of the Cold War. They also wrote Argo,the true story of her husband’s rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran (whichwas adapted into the 2013 Academy Award-Winning film). Most recently, theypublished TheMoscow Rules also about their work in Moscow.
Jonna’s popcorn-worthy true stories have us ready to hearmore at Dent 2020. Haven’t you always wanted to know the behind-the-scenes ofspy work? Is it just like the movies?And can acting like a secret agent help me in my daily life?
First, In thisTED talk, Jonna discusses the “Moscow Rules:” the key rules of espionage thatyou could implement in your personal or professional life:
- Trust your gut
- Don’t look back, you are never completely alone.
- Stay consistent over time.
- Know the opposition and their terrain intimately
- Pick the time and the place
- Keep your options open
- There is no limit to a human being’s ability torationalize the truth.
Though these may seem like common sense, when you hear themdescribed with life-and-death, global political stakes, you’ll see why they’reessential.
Second, In thisvideo for Wired, she breaks down the (often fiendishly simple, but just asoften elaborate) disguises she creates—altering everything from your mustacheto your walk to how you use silver wear.
Finally, here she breaks down spy disguise scenes from 30 spy movies and shows. Haven’t you always wondered how realistic those are?
There are clearly a lot more stories where they came from and we’re on the edge of our seats to hear them at Dent 2020.