They invest in strategy, operations, finance, and legal. Reputation, which determines whether customers trust you, employees stay, regulators give you the benefit of the doubt, and media treat you fairly, is often left to chance. Or addressed only when it is already under threat.
Wilkinson Group works with organisations that have decided to change that.
Senior Reputation Management Counsel, Australia
Wilkinson Group provides reputation management consulting and corporate reputation management to CEOs, internal PR, boards, and general counsel across Australia. We are not a traditional firm: small and senior by design, so when you engage us, you work directly with experienced practitioners who know your business, not a rotating team of account managers.
Reputation is built slowly, across thousands of interactions and decisions. It can be damaged quickly. Our role as your reputation management consultant is straightforward. The organisation you are building must match the reputation you are claiming. When it comes under pressure, it should hold.
HOW WILKINSON GROUP COMPARES
| Criteria | Wilkinson GroupSenior Counsel Model | Typical Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Who Handles Your Engagement | ✓Peter Wilkinson personally oversees every engagement | ✕Account manager, often with a rotating junior team |
| Background | ✓30 years as a journalist (ABC's 7.30, Four Corners, Nine's 60 Minutes) + 24 years advising Australian CEOs, boards & GC | ✕Most agency practitioners come from PR or marketing backgrounds |
| Service Continuity | ✓Same adviser carries the work from build through crisis to recovery | ✕Crisis work often passes between separate teams |
| Network | ✓Member of Reputation Advisors International & the Global Communications Alliance; sister agency Wilkinson Butler for full-service PR across Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane | ✕Varies, often limited to a single office or region |
| Availability | ✓Emergency crisis response 24/7, not limited to business hours | ✕Typically business hours only |
Wilkinson Group is based in Sydney and advises clients nationally across Australia. If you need support closer to home, See our Sydney base page.
What Reputation Management Actually Means
Reputation management covers three distinct stages. Each requires a different approach.
- Building: Aligning behaviour, communications, and culture through a reputation and stakeholder-perception audit that identifies where internal culture and external perception diverge delivered as a trust framework document for the board. This is the starting point for every reputation management consultant Australia engagement, regardless of sector.
- Protecting: Mapping a risk register against likely reputational exposures, maintaining a pre-drafted holding-statement library, and reviewing response protocols on a regular cycle (see our ) applied consistently whether the organisation is based in a capital city or regionally
- Recovering: Rebuilding trust through honesty about what went wrong, visible change, and a disciplined communications strategy with defined milestones for verifiable change typically taking 6-18 months depending on severity and sector. This is where CEO reputation management work often matters most, since leadership credibility is usually the slowest thing to rebuild.
Who We Work With
Wilkinson Group works with three types of organisations. Each comes to us at a different point in the cycle. Organisations tend to arrive at one of three points, and the right approach differs depending on which one applies.
- Under pressure now: A crisis has occurred, coverage is negative, and trust is eroding. They need a reputation management consultant who combines crisis expertise with a longer view of what recovery requires. Our article on sets out the first decisions that matter most in that moment, and if you don’t already have one in place.
- Anticipating pressure: A major decision, transaction, regulatory process, or public controversy is coming. They want senior counsel in place before the event.
- Building for the long term: They recognise that in an era of AI-accelerated scrutiny and declining public trust, the risk of a reputational event is rising. They want a trusted adviser already embedded before anything happens.
Why Reputation Risk Is Rising In 2026
Boards are facing a harder trust environment than at almost any point this century, and the data backs that up. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, 34,000 respondents across 28 markets, records a world in structural distrust. Only 32% of respondents globally believe the next generation will be better off. Boards and CEOs are expected to act as trust brokers.
Roy Morgan data confirms Australia is in its longest consecutive period of below-neutral consumer confidence this century.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report identifies 2026 as the year coordinated AI disinformation becomes intentional, targeted, and market-moving. The reputation risk for organisations operating in this environment has never been higher. This is a new category of reputational risk. The organisations navigating it well share one characteristic: a trusted reputation management consultant already in place. Recent cases like the and rising show what happens when it isn’t.
Wilkinson Confidante: Our Reputation Management Retainer
Wilkinson Confidante is Wilkinson Group’s retained advisory service for organisations that want ongoing, embedded reputation counsel rather than reactive support. It is built around three pillars: Reputation Building, Crisis Preparedness, and Risk Intelligence. Experience delivers the counsel; AI delivers the intelligence; the relationship strengthens both.
Learn more about Wilkinson Confidante: https://www.wilkinson-group.com.au/wilkinson-confidante/
Reputation Recovery
If your organisation’s reputation has already taken a hit, recovery isn’t just better communications, it requires visible change, transparency and time.
Read our full guide: https://www.wilkinson-group.com.au/how-to-manage-corporate-reputation/
About Peter Wilkinson: Reputation Management Consultant
Peter Wilkinson leads Wilkinson Group’s reputation management practice, advising boards, CEOs and general counsel across Australia. He brings 24 years’ experience in reputation management following 30 years as a journalist.
Read Peter’s full background on here: https://www.wilkinson-group.com.au/peter-wilkinson/
Frequently Asked Questions
A reputation management consultant in Australia advises CEOs, internal PR, boards, and general counsel on how to build, protect, and recover reputation. At Wilkinson Group, that means aligning an organisation's behaviours, communications, and culture with the expectations of its stakeholders, and responding decisively when those expectations come under pressure.
Wilkinson Group is a small, senior firm. When you engage us, you work directly with experienced practitioners, not account managers or juniors. Peter Wilkinson is personally involved in every engagement. That direct senior access is the model, not the exception.
We advise CEOs, boards, internal PR teams, and general counsel across all sectors: corporate, government, and not-for-profit. If the situation involves media scrutiny, regulatory exposure, or reputational risk, we can help.
A reputation management retainer typically includes an initial stakeholder-perception audit, ongoing risk monitoring, a pre-drafted holding-statement library, regular counsel access, and defined response protocols for when an issue emerges. Wilkinson Confidante is structured around exactly this: Reputation Building, Crisis Preparedness, and Risk Intelligence, delivered as an ongoing retained relationship rather than one-off project work.
Look for direct senior involvement rather than account managers, a track record across the full cycle of building, protecting, and recovering reputation, and named experience with situations comparable to yours, such as regulatory scrutiny, media investigations, or governance failures. Ask who will actually be in the room when it matters, not just who pitches the engagement. That is the standard Wilkinson Group is built around.
Based in Sydney, Wilkinson Group advises clients nationally across Australia.
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