Brian Baker

Managing Director/Head of Northern California Region & Crisis Communications Practice

Brian leads the firm's operations in Northern California and is head of the crisis communications practice.

He has 25 years of experience leading complex communications issues across multiple disciplines, including corporate relations, crisis communications, reputation management, profile raising, thought leadership and public affairs. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he's developed an extensive track record with B2B and B2C technology companies, in addition to financial services, healthcare, transportation and government. Prior to his new role, Brian founded Big Sky Crisis Communications, where he remains President. 

Previously, Brian was a Director at Brunswick Group, where he led crisis response and corporate reputation projects on behalf of clients such as Infosys, BNSF, Visa, Blue Shield of California and Pandora, in addition to a number of confidential assignments. Before joining Brunswick, Brian was a Senior Vice President at MSL Group, where his clients included Siemens, Ancestry.com, GM and Citi. Brian also served as Director of Corporate Communications at Visa and was responsible for guiding communications to key stakeholders during Visa's corporate restructuring, IPO, class action litigation, executive transitions and regulatory events. Brian started his career at Fleishman-Hillard, where he remains in close contact with his peers who now hold leadership positions in multiple high profile companies. 

Brian is a Montana native who graduated from The University of Montana with a B.S. in Business Administration.