Pete Wentz provides clients with expertise in corporate reputation, crisis, financial and litigation communication and strategic planning. A lawyer by training, Pete has provided crisis and litigation communication and corporate reputation support to some of world’s best-known companies and brands, including Kellogg Company, Harley-Davidson, Trader Joe’s, E-Trade, Whirlpool, Exxon Mobil and Northwestern University. He also has extensive experience in higher education, particularly with law schools.
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As an Executive Director in APCO’s Chicago office, Pete’s most recent projects have including representing a major sports organization whose leaders, who subsequently left, allegedly were involved in covering up sexual abuse. He has also worked with colleges and universities and other clients facing regulatory and reputational challenges from the administration, litigation between major companies and product recalls. Pete has provided financial communication consulting on a variety of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, sales of subsidiaries and businesses, bankruptcies, corporate governance and executive compensations.
Pete has provided strategic planning and communication consulting services to several of the nation’s leading universities and has also developed and implemented communication programs for several law firms.
Before joining APCO, Pete served as vice president of corporate communication and law for Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. a Fortune 500 company, for 17 years where he led all aspects of the company’s public relations program, including reputation management, investor relations and crisis communication.
Pete was also the associate dean of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where he was responsible for strategic planning and public relations. He continues to teach a course that includes understanding the role of inside counsel and crisis management and the law. In addition, Pete served as an attorney at Sidley Austin and a legislative assistant to Senator Joseph R. Biden.
Pete is a graduate of Trinity College and received his law degree from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He is married with three children, one of whom is the face of the band Fall Out Boy.
