Jon Austin

WE PROVIDE CLIENTS with senior-level communications counsel for crisis and issue management, corporate reputation, internal audiences, brand management, government/public affairs and labor relations. WE SPECIALIZE IN issue and crisis communications. We proactively help you manage major events such as personnel transitions, re-branding, layoffs, labor disputes or other complex situations. We create communications strategies that anticipate and respond to accidents, recalls, natural disasters and other crises. BEFORE STARTING MY OWN COMPANY I worked for six years at Fleishman Hillard. I also served for ten years as the principal spokesman for Northwest Airlines where I was responsible for the development and execution of all external corporate communications. I was the principal communications strategist and spokesperson in all crisis situations involving corporate operations or reputation and supervised all communications functions with the company, including media relations, internal communications, community affairs, investor relations, government affairs and advertising. IN ADDITION, I have worked in politics, government and the software industry. Prior to moving to the Twin Cities, I was the director of product development for General Information, a software and data publisher based in Seattle, where I was responsible for the company’s software and data development and supervised a staff of 50 programmers, data editors, technical writers, quality assurance engineers, technical support personnel and researchers. During the 1980s, I started a political consulting and software development firm based in Washington, DC where I worked with U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton. I worked on a variety of political campaigns at the state and national levels. SPECIALTIES INCLUDE Crisis communications and management, media relations, corporate counsel, media training, speech writing, messaging, issues management.