Sydney – 31st October 2024 – Strategic communications and digital marketing agency Clarity today announced the formation of its Clarity Global Crisis Council, a seasoned team comprising Clarity’s own crisis specialists and a panel of external experts, providing an expanded follow-the-sun crisis and reputation management service.

The move follows Clarity’s 2023 acquisition of renowned Australian crisis and reputation management agency Sefiani. It also reflects Clarity’s commitment to meeting the rapidly rising demand for expert crisis and reputation consultancy and omni-channel communications expertise across geographies.

The Clarity Global Crisis Council is led by the agency’s own senior crisis and reputation specialists Robyn Sefiani and Nicholas Owens in Sydney, Michael Gonzalez in London, Kristen Ingraham in New York, and Jason Wakeford in Los Angeles.

Also appointed to the Clarity Global Crisis Council are a number of independent crisis and reputation specialists who will work alongside the Clarity crisis team on projects where relevant. The combined team deepens and broadens Clarity’s global offering across geographic markets, diverse industries, and regulatory and political environments.

Rachel Gilley, Clarity’s CEO said, “We are delighted to welcome five eminent reputation experts as external members of our Clarity Global Crisis Council.

“Ensuring our clients have access to the most experienced advisors available, wherever in the world they might need them, is very important to us. We look forward to working collaboratively with Council members to deliver best-in-class crisis response and reputation management services across continents,” she said.

The external members of the Clarity Global Crisis Council comprise: 

• Catherine Colloms who has over 25 years’ of crisis management experience with an eminent background in corporate, agency and government affairs in the UK and Europe.
• Laetitia Gruwel who has over 20 years’ experience as a crisis and reputation expert, including a decade as Crisis & Reputation Lead at Edelman Amsterdam, prior to establishing her own firm in The Netherlands.
• Bob McNaney who has over a decade of experience as a crisis counsellor in the United States, and prior to that was an Emmy award-winning investigative journalist for 17 years.
• James Brasher who has led agencies in Asia for over two decades, advising clients on proactive and defensive reputation management. He is Managing Partner of RICE, an APAC Clarity affiliate.
• Patrick O’Neill who is based in Brazil and co-founded Sherlock Communications, Clarity’s affiliate agency in Latin America. He has over two decades of crisis counselling experience and was recently named PR Week’s Agency Professional of the Year

Further enhancing Clarity’s crisis and reputation management offering, are the agency’s close working relationships with global online crisis reputation management and digital communications risk specialist Digitalis; and global crisis simulation company Polpeo. 

Robyn Sefiani, Clarity’s President ANZ & Reputation Counsel, said: “A crisis waits for no-one. While some crises can be defused quickly and locally, others evolve, morph and escalate across markets and geographies, with the potential to cause significant and sustained brand and corporate reputation damage.

“The Clarity Global Crisis Council is ready to address any reputation risk whenever and wherever it emerges. Our follow-the-sun service can extend to crafting a 360° crisis response, designing a crisis preparedness workshop, auditing digital footprints for reputation risk, tackling social media disinformation, preparing for forthcoming legal action, building resilience across digital, Wikipedia and media platforms, and curating a bespoke approach to reputation challenges on the horizon.

“As many of the clients and brands seeking our crisis and reputation management counsel are global, it is reassuring for them to know we have a seamless team of communication, digital, intelligence and analytics specialists around the world to deliver a holistic, follow-the-sun service, to protect and defend their reputations when needed,” said Sefiani.

To learn more about Clarity Global Crisis Council, visit here.