Julia A. Wilson

Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Wilson Global Communications USA

Julia A. Wilson is CEO & founder of Wilson Global Communications USA (WGC), an international marketing communications firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. WGC specializes in strategic public relations, advocacy and promotion, brand management, media relations/product development, and special event management, including trade & cultural missions.

Wilson is one the leading advocates for Africa and has promoted positive images of Africa and its people for more than a decade. In recent years, she has expanded her business outreach to East Asia and Europe. In 2010, Wilson received a Fulbright grant from the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France for her participation as a guest speaker in its first diversity forum held at Science Po University in Paris, and her firm organized a 45-member delegation comprised of African American leaders to Beijing, China, linking the delegates to Chinese government officials and prominent business, academic and civic leaders on behalf of the National Urban League. In partnership with TUSKON, Turkey’s leading business organization comprised of 151 business associations representing 15,000 entrepreneurs, she recently traveled to Istanbul to prepare for a trade and cultural mission of business people to Turkey scheduled for Oct. 2010.

A former print and broadcast journalist turned social entrepreneur, Wilson was featured as a media commentator on CNBC-TV’s "Going Global: Investing in Africa," CBS and NPR during President Barack Obama’s 2009 visit to Ghana. She created "On the Continent", a 30-minute international TV program on Africa that aired in Europe and Francophone Africa, and served as the program’s executive producer and host, securing exclusive TV interviews with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Africa’s first woman elected Head of State) and former U.S. Sec. of State Madeline Albright. The World Bank hosted the program’s debut show. As a media follow-up to link Liberians throughout the Diaspora, Wilson created the "Good News Liberia" radio program that aired on three leading radio stations in Monrovia and via Internet. Wilson has authored numerous published news articles and created and published Good News Magazine, a multicultural publication designed to bridge racial and cultural gaps in Los Angeles, California in the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King civil unrest.

Following Wilson’s TV coverage of the 1994 South African elections for KCOP-TV in Los Angeles that resulted in the election of President Nelson Mandela, Wilson moved to Johannesburg and founded Wilson Global Communications SA Pty Ltd. In South Africa, her company helped to re- position the Coca-Cola Company, linking the Coke brand to South African visits of then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the late U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. Wilson also worked with the Prince of Wales Trust to chronicle the philanthropic organization’s outreach in South African townships and secured a coveted one-on-one interview with Prince Charles. Wilson expanded her communications consultancy to Ghana, and lived in Accra while working with the Ghanaian government to connect President Bill Clinton and his delegation with the top 100 businesses and investment opportunities in Ghana.

In addition to Coca-Cola, Wilson has consulted with numerous multinationals, including AREVA T&D, one of the world’s leading nuclear energy companies headquartered in Paris, France for which her company produced a marketing video and Internet-based radio promotion. The video has surfaced as AREVA’s #1 marketing tool for sales of its blackout mitigation software product, "e-terravision."

In Washington, D.C., Wilson regularly interacts with the 49 African embassies that make up the Diplomatic Corps and serves as the communications consultant to the African Union Mission to the USA, the umbrella organization representing 53 African countries with the White House, U.S. Congress, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for American States (OAS) and African embassies. She communicates regularly with branches of the U.S. government, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for whom she has participated as moderator of sevral forums hosted by Congressional leaders during CBC conferences, and other national and foreign dignitaries and urban leaders.

An honors graduate from the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC) and an anthropological communications exchange student at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, Israel from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Wilson taught public relations in the Annenberg School of Communications as an adjunct professor for three years. A recipient of the the USC Order of Troy Award and the NAACP Community Award in Los Angeles, she also earned a French Language Certificate from the Institut de Francais in Villefranche, France in 2008 and is a member of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.