Strategic public affairs for a complex world
We advise companies and organisations that intend to stay able to act in the political arena. From Vienna. Present in Brussels.
Who we are
Public Interest was founded in Vienna in 2007 to close a gap in strategically planned communications advice. What began as a specialist office for strategic communications planning grew into the leading address for advancing interests in Austria - working closely with the best communications advisers across Europe.
Today Public Interest works with clients from highly regulated sectors. Our advice brings corporate strategy, political analysis, stakeholder management and communications together into one integrated approach - independent, focused on effect, and with direct access to the centres of decision in politics, business and media.
Stakeholder and network, high-level strategy and campaigning, professional analysis and monitoring.
Six highly regulated sectors where the political framework decides commercial success.
Public Interest in numbers
#1
Market leader for public affairs in Austria
700
Decision-makers across business, politics and media in the active network
>100
communications projects delivered successfully each year
>100
prominent executive and supervisory board members advised
12
clients from the Fortune Global 500
150
years of combined advisory experience in the senior team
#1
Market leader for alliance and association management
Top 5
in the Austrian agency revenue ranking
What we do
Advice at the intersection of regulation, strategy and communications.
Simply "knowing" people adds nothing. Robust relationships of trust with decision-makers do.
Identifying the actors who matter, building channels of communication, developing win-win positions and forming coalitions: that is the toolkit of effective strategic communications advice as Public Interest understands it.
A business strategy becomes a communications programme that reaches its goals faster.
Success takes persuasion. In the execution phase Public Interest takes on work that its experience and its network of senior advisers often complete faster and more efficiently than existing in-house resources can.
Curated monitoring of initiatives, draft legislation and public debate - assessed against your business goals.
Not every headline matters. We filter, contextualise and state what a development actually means for your company - early enough for there still to be room to act.
Industries
Our advice is in particular demand in highly regulated industries and sensitive markets, where the political framework is decisive for commercial success.
Network rollout, spectrum policy and data protection rules decide how much room to invest remains.
Open sector pageDecarbonisation, grid expansion and the redesign of the electricity market are happening at once.
Open sector pageSupervisors in Vienna, Brussels and Basel reach directly into day-to-day business.
Open sector pageA growth sector carrying heavy societal responsibility and a correspondingly dense rulebook.
Open sector pageSupply chains, packaging and labelling have become political questions.
Open sector pageThe DSA, DMA, AI Act and data law help define the business model itself.
Open sector pageManagement
Public Interest is led by its managing partners and a senior advisory board: former executives of leading companies and exceptionally well-connected figures with strong reputations.
Founder & Managing Partner
Founded Public Interest in 2007 and has advised CEOs of leading companies in Austria and abroad ever since.
Read profile
Managing Partner
Advises executive and supervisory boards at the intersection of business, the public sphere and politics.
Read profileFrequently asked
Public Interest Consultants is an Austrian public affairs, business lobbying and strategic communications consultancy based in Vienna with a presence in Brussels. Founded in 2007, it advises corporations, associations and investors at the intersection of regulation, strategy and communications.
Classic PR addresses the media public. Public affairs addresses political and regulatory decision-making: it combines government relations, analysis of regulatory initiatives, stakeholder work and coalition building with strategic communications, and is tied to concrete business objectives.
Yes. The Austrian Lobbying and Interest Representation Transparency Act (LobbyG) requires lobbying firms to register in the lobbying and interest representation register and, under section 7 of the Act, to adopt a code of conduct. Public Interest Consultants is bound by that code.
The focus is on highly regulated sectors: telecommunications, energy and infrastructure, financial services and insurance, health and life sciences, consumer goods, and the platform economy and technology.
Yes. Public Interest is represented at the European institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg and offers EU monitoring, European policy analysis, support in impact assessments, European alliance campaigning as well as help with grants and procurement.
No. Discretion is part of the advisory approach: Public Interest discusses neither client names nor individual mandates. The disclosures required by law are filed in the lobbying and interest representation register.
A first conversation usually settles quickly whether and how we can help.