Greenbrier (Strategic Communications Firm)

Greenbrier was founded by a veteran team of communications professionals whose founders drew on in-house communications experience during the early days of ridesharing and on deep political backgrounds; its founders were Lane Kasselman and Matt McKenna. The firm was first launched as a specialized crisis communications firm, handling a wide range of reputational challenges faced by high-profile brands and individuals. On the founding year, the firm’s website gives 2015, its LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry page gives 2016, and a conference biography of Kasselman gives 2017.⁠[1][2][1][3]

Before founding Greenbrier, Kasselman led communications and public affairs for the Americas at Uber; he built Greenbrier from the ground up and helped the leadership teams of companies such as Lyft, Lime, Instacart, Epic Games, Quibi and ByteDance navigate complex issues.⁠[4][4][4]

In 2016, the crypto wallet and trading services provider Blockchain.com retained Greenbrier, and the two firms have worked together ever since; Greenbrier has handled its partnership announcements, personnel announcements and product launches, authored white papers, managed speaking opportunities, and advised its leadership at every stage of the company’s growth. Co-founder Kasselman later became Blockchain.com’s president.⁠[5][5][5]

In late 2017, Greenbrier was acquired by The Messina Group (TMG), a global strategic consultancy founded by Jim Messina, President Obama’s former White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of his 2012 reelection campaign. Greenbrier has since operated as a division of TMG, drawing on its parent’s political, campaign and digital expertise and joining forces with it when this benefits clients. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.⁠[1][1]

On January 17, 2018, TMG announced that it had opened an office in San Francisco and merged with the Silicon Valley public relations firm Greenbrier, with the new office serving its fast-growing base of start-up and technology clients in Silicon Valley. Greenbrier, with expertise in crisis management and prediction, narrative development and public affairs, was led by Matt McKenna and Lane Kasselman and would henceforth be known as “Greenbrier, a Messina Group company.”⁠[2][2][2][2]

After joining TMG, Greenbrier transformed from a mostly crisis communications agency into a full-stack strategy and communications firm, with clients ranging from publicly traded transportation giants to Web3 projects.⁠[1][1]

Its public case studies include helping Cabana, a company renting tech-enabled luxury camper vans, officially launch its fleet on the US West Coast in the spring of 2020; working from 2022 with the cryptography-based data management company Kelvin Zero to define its company narrative and placing op-eds on open banking and digital identity in Canada’s largest newspapers; doing pro bono media relations for the reproductive health education nonprofit Mayday Health after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade; and communications work for Passport, a mobility software and payments company focused on the curb, the propeller maker Sharrow Marine, and Mill, a new product launched by the founders of Nest.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5][5]

TMG announced that it had become Fortius Global, and Greenbrier moved completely into Fortius as its core communications practice, giving clients one integrated team. Partner Adrian Durbin said communications stopped being a standalone discipline years ago. Greenbrier’s former website subsequently noted that it is no longer updated.⁠[6][6][6][6][7][8]

Greenbrier’s services include corporate communications and storytelling, crisis management and preparedness, public affairs, media training, data analysis and reporting, and digital strategy carried out with TMG’s digital team; it says it has over 40 years of combined experience managing crises and uses a crisis audit process to develop response playbooks for clients.⁠[8][5][5][5]

Blockchain and Web3 is a focus industry, with clients spanning wallets, exchanges, Bitcoin miners, layer-1 blockchains and DeFi projects, and the firm publishes a newsletter called Crypto Beltway; its media highlights include coverage of OpenSea’s effort to ban copymint NFTs, the Series A of the digital asset startup Mesh, and the expansion of a renewable-energy Bitcoin miner in Sweden.⁠[9][8][8][8][8]

Greenbrier’s other case studies include handling an oversight with national security implications for the fitness app Strava, and changing the story when the media predicted the end of the grocery delivery company Instacart.⁠[10][10]

As of October 2026, Greenbrier’s website lists Adrian Durbin and Abram Smith as partners. Durbin is a former head of communications at Lyft, where he led communications for the company’s IPO; Smith, a founding member of Greenbrier, previously worked on Uber’s policy and communications team and leads digital assets and fintech work at Fortius.⁠[1][6][6][6]

Greenbrier: Official website: https://greenbrier.partners/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

LinkedIn: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenbrier/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3]

Fortius Global: Official website: https://fortiusglobal.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]