ExecutiveBiographies

Charlie Sipkins rejoined The Abernathy MacGregor Group in 2009, with over a decade in New York and Los Angeles as a specialist in crisis communications.  Mr. Sipkins has extensive experience leading teams and serving as the primary spokesperson in communications campaigns that involve crises, litigation and labor issues.  He has also provided communications support for mergers & acquisitions and corporate reorganizations.  

Mr. Sipkins’ recent clients have been engaged in major product recalls, physical disasters, high-profile Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice white collar and multi-State Attorneys' General investigations, as well as class-action, anti-trust, environmental and employment litigation.  He helped United Airlines with its January 2005 emergence from bankruptcy and its relisting on the NASDAQ exchange. Earlier, he assisted the airline in its attempted merger with US Airways and coordinated its global external communications responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. 

Mr. Sipkins assisted a sub-prime lender in a $300 million settlement with 48 state Attorneys General, as well as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in its contested visible acquisition of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).  He also served as a spokesperson for a media company in a radio contest incident as well as for an international conglomerate's response to a light-rail train accident.

Charlie previously served as Senior Vice President and Partner at Fleishman-Hillard in New York and San Francisco and as a senior account executive at Hill and Knowlton.  His clients included Honeywell, Astra Zeneca, Ford Motor Company, Trans World Airlines, Continental Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, Sun Microsystems, Shell Oil, ESPN, Hasbro, Swissair, the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Sipkins began his career as a legislative assistant to Representative Martin Sabo (MN) on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, and is a graduate of Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Affairs and the Blake School in Minneapolis.