William Plunkett

From serving the Chicago Tribune as a writer and editor to working as lead communications officer of Waste Management, Inc., the world's leading environmental services company, nobody knows the ins and outs of this city's communications landscape better than Bill Plunkett.

Bill has spent more than 25 years of experience in corporate communications and journalism and his experience ranges from public affairs, media relations and community relations to crisis and issues management, employee communications, advertising and branding, and investor and financial communications.

As a communications counselor and spokesperson, he has served as point person on a variety of critical issues that affected corporate relationships with host communities, customers, federal, local and foreign governments, shareholders, and the media. He has engaged and directed the work of numerous public affairs, public relations advertising and investor relations agencies.

Bill has broad experience in dealing with a range of environmental issues, land-use strategies and crisis management situations. This experience stems in great part from Bill's role as head of communications at Waste Management, Inc. for a decade and his tenure as a consultant since 1998. 

He has managed communications for a variety of siting and permit issues, operating location incidents, including accidental death, fires and explosions; workplace issues, including litigation for discrimination and sexual harassment; activist protests; and community issues.

His corporate crisis experience includes dealing allegations of wrong-doing and white-collar criminality; financial impropriety; regulatory infractions and environmental fines; and a range of management issues.

Bill helped establish the corporate communications and investor relations function at Tribune Company, one of the nation's leading newspapers, broadcasting and new media companies. Always a step ahead of his peers, Bill pioneered the Tribune's former Inc. column for city insiders.

Bill spent more than a decade in journalism as an editor and writer at the Tribune, serving in a variety of key editorial assignments that gave him experience and understanding of the workings of the media.