Orchestra today announced the expansion of its crisis communications practice, adding senior leadership and realigning internal talent as demand for enterprise risk, crisis response and reputation management continues to grow across sectors.

The expansion builds on Orchestra’s launch last year of a dedicated Crisis Communications Practice, led by Managing Director Andrew Friedman. The strengthened team reflects the firm’s continued investment in crisis, legal, and issues-driven communications at a moment of heightened complexity for organizations navigating regulatory, political, health, and corporate risk.

As part of the expansion, Orchestra has added Deepika Sandhu as Senior Vice President for Legal and Crisis Communications. Based in New York and Washington D.C. and reporting to Friedman, Sandhu brings nearly two decades of experience advising organizations through high-stakes crises and enterprise risk challenges across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Prior to joining Orchestra, she held senior roles at Edelman, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Zeno Group, counseling multinational organizations on complex health, public affairs, and corporate issues. Most recently, she established and led the first enterprise crisis and internal communications function at the American Chemical Society, where she built an organization-wide crisis and resilience framework to support leadership decision-making.

In addition to Sandhu, Vice President Kwame Belle has also moved to the firm’s growing crisis practice, recognizing his extensive crisis expertise and background helping clients navigate difficult situations with confidence. In his tenure, Belle has advised companies, executives, institutions and mission-driven organizations on situational preparedness, rapid response and high-stakes reputation management across corporate strategy, tech governance, economic policy and corporate responsibility. Alisha Sahi also joined the firm’s Crisis practice this week following stints at Citadel and MSNBC.

“As risk becomes more interconnected — across legal exposure, public scrutiny and operational decision-making — clients need integrated counsel that can move just as fast as events unfold,” said Friedman. “This expansion strengthens our ability to help leaders anticipate risk, respond under pressure and protect long-term value.”

“Organizations are operating in environments where legal, reputational and operational risks are deeply intertwined,” said Sandhu. “Orchestra’s approach reflects that reality — combining scenario planning, rapid response and leadership counsel in a way that’s disciplined, practical and grounded in how decisions actually get made.”

The expanded crisis practice supports clients across corporate, health, policy, nonprofit and public affairs environments, drawing on Orchestra’s integrated platform of agencies and specialists.

About Orchestra:

Orchestra is a strategic communications and marketing company built for today’s complex and fragmented world. From decoding audiences to designing bold strategies, Orchestra integrates people, platforms and stories that stick to help clients build lasting influence. The company combines executive advisory, strategy development and tactical execution across channels—grounded in deep insight and analytics, delivered with urgency and optimized for impact. With 700+ experts across consumer and lifestyle, technology, nonprofit and philanthropy, real estate, sports, travel, hospitality and more, Orchestra helps organizations navigate change, seize opportunities and thrive.

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