About Wilkinson Group

Wilkinson Group is one of Australia’s most experienced crisis communications consultants and reputation management consultancies. We provide senior counsel to CEOs,internal PR, boards, and general counsel across Australia. We are small by design and senior by necessity. The work we do cannot be delegated to a junior team.

Peter Wilkinson co-founded Wilkinson Group in 2002, after more than 30 years as a journalist on the ABC’s 7.30 and Four Corners, and then Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes and A Current Affair. The move into crisis communications was deliberate. After three decades reporting on organisations navigating crises from the outside, he understood what they were getting wrong, and what they needed that they were not getting from most advisers.

What they needed was not a crisis PR agency running junior teams on senior retainers. Not a reactive media management service. They needed direct access to a senior crisis communications consultant, someone who understood both sides of the story, had seen the consequences of poor crisis and reputation management up close, and could think clearly under pressure. Particularly when the client was a CEO whose personal reputation was on the line.

That is still the model. 24 years later, constantly upskilled.

Every engagement at Wilkinson Group has oversight by Peter Wilkinson. Sydney-based, with national reach across Australia, there are no layers, no account managers, no junior intermediaries. When you call, you speak to the person doing the work.

For our limited number of retained clients, this means Peter is already across your
business, your board, your risk profile, and your stakeholder landscape before anything happens. Whether the issue involves crisis communications, reputation management, or broader issues management across Australia, when an event occurs there is no briefing delay, no learning curve. The adviser who needs to move immediately is already in place.

For crisis clients, this means the same crisis communications consultant who takes your call at midnight in Sydney is the person who sits with your board the next morning, shapes the strategy, and drives the response, whether the issue is local, national, or cross-jurisdictional.

Wilkinson Group is a small, senior team. Each member brings a specific and complementary expertise.

Peter Wilkinson is a member of Reputation Advisors International, a curated global network of senior crisis PR and reputation management consultants. As a Sydney-based crisis communications consultant with reach across Australia and internationally, this network provides clients access to the most experienced practitioners in the field worldwide when issues cross jurisdictions.

Wilkinson Group is also part of the Global Communications Alliance (GCA), connecting senior independent corporate affairs and public affairs agencies across international markets.

Wilkinson Group’s sister agency is Wilkinson Butler, a Sydney corporate affairs agency with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Peter Wilkinson serves as Chairman.

Wilkinson Butler specialises in three pillars: Crisis and Reputation Management; Sustainability and Energy Transitions; and Digital. As a full-service crisis PR agency across Australia, Wilkinson Butler serves clients requiring media relations, government relations, community engagement, and digital strategy, complementing Wilkinson Group’s senior crisis communications and reputation management counsel for Sydney and national clients.