Branson and Ayliffe

Elevated Crisis Preparation and Training

Sally Branson and Tim Ayliffe provide high-level crisis and training consulting to leaders and organisations facing their most critical challenges.

We specialise in high-stakes preparedness, offering tailored sessions for key leaders, staff, and boards. We focus on enhancing your understanding of modern media, ensuring you know when and how to respond effectively. Our services identify strategic gaps and provide essential tools for success.

We offer communication mapping for staff, clients, and stakeholders, along with high stakes public speaking and media training. This prepares you for media appearances, shareholder meetings, and legal matters.

In the most challenging circumstances, we ensure you're ready.

We offer bespoke sessions for key leaders, staff and boards, which:

  • clarifies your understanding of modern media – when, how and where to respond

  • help identify what you’re missing and what you really need

  • provide communication mapping for staff, clients, shareholders and other important stakeholders

  • provide public speaking and media training to leaders and key allies suitable for media, shareholder meetings, Senate estimates, legal matters

  • war-game scenarios so you’re never caught by surprise

  • clarify your chain of command, so the people who should be ready to stand up and speak for you are able to do so

We maintain strict commercial confidentiality for our clients and the work we undertake.

For information on our training please email BA@sbcg.au

Sally Branson and Tim Ayliffe have a combined almost 50 years-experience working at the highest levels of government, media, diplomacy, and reputation management.           

Unlike consultants who only understand crises in theory, Branson and Ayliffe bring genuine frontline experience to your challenges. They've made critical decisions when consequences were real, and irreversible - giving them insights that textbooks and PR campaigns can’t replicate.


  • Founder and Managing Director of SBCG

    Sally Branson brings 25 years of diplomatic, military, government, and corporate expertise as a strategic crisis manager. As Senior Press Secretary to an Australian Prime Minister and advisor to senior military officials including US Joint Chiefs of Staff, she's managed public affairs programmes of significant geopolitical importance.

    Iconic global brands and organisations rely on her during their darkest times of crisis. She finds solutions and remedies that are timely, effective and results-driven, having undertaken significant work to create positive institutional change through crisis response.

    Through the Sally Branson Consulting Group, she delivers candid, pragmatic reputation management solutions. Her specialised approach helps high-profile individuals repair, reset, and protect their reputations during challenging times.

    Sally provides national media commentary, has extensive Board experience, and was awarded the Secretary of State's Foreign Service Award. She is recognised as one of Australia's leading crisis communications experts.

  • Media and Communication Authority

    Tim Ayliffe’s 25-year career in journalism saw him work in London for Britain’s Sky News and in Australia for the ABC, where he worked as Executive Producer of News Breakfast and Managing Editor of TV & News – a role which oversaw most of the ABC’s TV and Video news output.

    As a media executive, Tim oversaw countless transformation projects, including creating strategies and leading teams across Australia to transition from linear to digital content.

    He’s also an award-winning thriller author of five novels which are also being adapted for the screen. As a bestselling author and experienced media executive, Tim Ayliffe passionately believes in the power of storytelling and clear, effective, communication.

    Tim has a Bachelor of Arts Degree, Graduate Diploma in Journalism, and was a recipient of the US State Department’s Individual Leadership Scholarship in the United States. He’s also an IECL trained organisational leadership coach.