Selected Speaker’s Topics
- Double Trouble – my life: This keynote dives deep into Jack’s remarkable life story, first brought to wide attention through his feature on 60 Minutes. He expands far beyond the televised summary, sharing vivid details, untold moments, and the hidden realities of operating as an illegal lone-wolf sleeper agent for the KGB. Audiences get an inside look at the pressure, discipline, and constant mental calibration required to survive in total secrecy. Jack reveals what daily life looked like under a false identity, how he managed high-risk missions without support, and the personal turning points that shaped his transformation once he left espionage behind.
- Espionage, Mythic and Reality: Jack destroys the legendary reputation of the ‘Mighty KGB’ with examples from his own experience. In part TWO he plays a game with the audience called ‘What is wrong here and why’. He shows a dozen clips from famous spy movies and TV shows and asks the audience to guess how real-life top-notch spies would never act in such a way in the particular scenes.
- Applied Spychology: In this motivational keynote, Jack reveals how the very skills that once made him an effective deep-cover operative became the foundation of a highly successful corporate career. He breaks down the mindset, habits, and finely tuned abilities he developed as a spy, observation, strategic thinking, emotional control, adaptability and shows how each one can be applied in everyday professional life. Jack illustrates how these “spy skills” helped him navigate leadership roles, build trust, manage complex situations, and make sound decisions under pressure. The heart of the message is simple and powerful: Jack is sharing with audiences the superpower of spy skills, offering practical takeaways that anyone can use to elevate performance, strengthen resilience, and approach challenges with greater clarity and confidence.
- An Undercover Love Story: This is all about the role of love in Jack’s life, a life of exhilarating highs and devastating lows. The story peaks with the most dramatic moment in Jack’s life when he disobeyed KGB orders at the risk of his freedom and life, just to be with his baby daughter who made him experience the power of unconditional love. After some more ups and downs the story ends with how Jack took full ownership of his love and made that the foundation of his very existence, regardless circumstances and regardless of the words and deeds of others. And that is why Jack is now in a state he calls “The lightness of being”. The end of the story is not a happy one in the traditional sense, it is highly emotional and deeply motivational.
- Once Upon A Spy: This presentation starts with a brief history of the Soviet Union and the KGB It then goes on to how Jack was recruited, trained and deployed. This is followed by some tidbits about what it was like for him to operate as a deep cover illegal sleeper in the U.S. Optionally, there is also a section about modern Russia, Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine war. Depending on the audience, Jack can also add a segment on cyber security with a focus on the insider threat.
Back in 1978, Jack Barsky infiltrated the United States under a stolen identity. His mission? Spy on America. After a decade, Jack was one of the few able to outsmart and break free from his KGB handlers – a story globally covered by the BBC, CNN, NYT, 60 Minutes, and Lex Fridman, to name a few.
However, that was just the beginning.
Jack went on to rise to C-Suite executive roles at Fortune 500 giants, including NRG Energy and Con Edison. As many say: “He mastered the American corporate structure better than those born into it.”
Jack is an author, former CIO at a Fortune 500 energy firm and former operative of the KGB who spied on the United States from 1978 to 1988. Exposed after the Cold War had ended, Barsky became a resource for U.S. counterintelligence agencies, and held executive technology roles at major U.S. corporations. He was not charged with any crime and was allowed to remain in the United States. His autobiography, Deep Undercover, was published in 2017, and he frequently speaks on his experiences and as an expert on espionage.