Business advisory firm FTI Consulting announced the appointment of John Franklin as managing director and head of the Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT) industry practice in North America within the firm’s Strategic Communications segment. He will be based in San Francisco.

Franklin brings more than 20 years of experience in reputation management, brand building, financial communications and crisis management to FTI Consulting. In his senior roles at The Abernathy MacGregor Group, RLM Finsbury and SS+K, Franklin designed and executed corporate and financial communications programs for market-leading TMT companies such as Dell, HP, Nextel (currently Sprint), Microsoft and Yahoo!; as well as emerging TMT companies such as Trulia and Zynga.

Franklin also has considerable expertise building corporate credibility focused on innovation in times of change outside the TMT industry for clients including Boeing, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Northwest Airlines (currently Delta Air Lines), PepsiCo and Toyota. This range of expertise will help FTI Consulting deploy its broad portfolio of services deeper into businesses where technology is pivotal to creating value.

“John has a wealth of industry knowledge and experience in advising emerging and established, private and public TMT companies,” said Edward J. Reilly, global chief executive officer of the Strategic Communications segment at FTI Consulting. “His appointment demonstrates the firm’s commitment to providing best-in-class counsel to meet the complex and evolving communications needs of our clients.”

“FTI Consulting has a truly differentiated offering for an industry like TMT that is navigating accelerating change, including social media, investor relations, intellectual property valuation, economic consulting, lobbying and stakeholder engagement,” said Franklin. “If you’re looking for the teams and tools to harness and manage disruptive change, there’s no better platform.”