Meredith Griffanti, Managing Director, FTI Consulting Strategic Communications
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Meredith Griffanti, Managing Director, FTI Consulting Strategic Communications
Additional Info
| Job title of nominated professional (or team name) | Managing Director, Crisis and Litigation; Head of Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Communications |
| Company (where nominated professional or team is working) | FTI Consulting |
| Website | https://www.fticonsulting.com/ |
| Company size (employees) | 500 to 999 |
| Country | United States |
| Headquarters Region | North America |
Overview
Meredith specializes in crisis and high-stakes litigation communications, with a focus on complex cybersecurity attacks and data privacy investigations. Meredith spearheaded the creation of FTI’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Communications practice. By marshaling her wealth of experience in cyber incident response and a knack for developing talent, Meredith has quickly formed one of the preeminent cybersecurity communications offerings in the industry.
Meredith leverages her experience having led crisis communications at Equifax in the aftermath of its 2017 data breach to help clients manage live incidents involving PII, PHI, IP and other sensitive data across a range of industries. She has counseled companies facing high-profile and highly-sensitive breaches with global implications and successfully guided client responses to the full array of hacker techniques, including business email compromise attacks, phishing and spear phishing campaigns, DDos and credential stuffing efforts, and nation-state and double-extortion ransomware attacks.
In 2020 alone, Meredith has secured and led more than 35 cybersecurity matters. A few highlights include:
• Advising a publicly traded, leading space industry company on the potential public disclosure of a cybersecurity incident that resulted in the theft of sensitive engineering and IP data by a nation-state attacker.
• Supporting a U.S.-based stock exchange as it sought to enhance its cybersecurity crisis preparedness, including creating, designing and implementing a new crisis response process that minimized chances of a leak.
• Serving as lead communications advisor to a multibillion-dollar, multinational aerospace, defense and cybersecurity contractor experiencing a sustained ransomware attack by a preeminent hacker group.
To more effectively serve clients, Meredith is also studying to become a Certified Information Systems Security Professional. Meredith is frequently featured in industry trades and regularly publishes thought leadership, including a recently co-authored pieces in InfoSecurity Magazine and PR Week and was featured in PRNews’ Crisis Insider ransomware edition.
Accomplishments
• Meredith is a tireless client servant and team player, bringing her crisis management and PR talents to bear in ways both subtle and direct. Cybersecurity matters require deliberate thinking, consistent messaging, calm under pressure, a deep understanding of the various paths a breach can take as investigators uncover more and a toolbox of varied communications skills – Meredith possesses them all. In addition to overseeing strategy and content development, she rolls up her sleeves and is right there with her team throughout. She emphasizes the importance of doing everything with integrity and asking the hard questions while having a larger vision and goals behind a project to keep the team driving forward.
• Meredith has been one of the Strategic Communications sector’s leading revenue drivers in 2020, securing over 30 cyber matters on the year. To buttress the team’s steady stream of business, Meredith has worked tirelessly to secure FTI’s position on several leading cybersecurity insurance panels. In addition, Meredith continues to cultivate her relationships with leading legal counsel in the cyber space, resulting in a number of referrals. The team is having to rapidly expand to meet the influx of work.
• Meredith’s work and commitment to her field extends beyond her role at FTI. She is a member of WiCyS (Women in Cybersecurity), a premier organization with national reach dedicated to bringing together women in cybersecurity fields to share knowledge, experience, networking and mentoring. She has also spoken on a number of panels, including King & Spalding’s Cybersecurity Summit, American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section, Junior Achievement Americas Webinar on Crisis Communications during COVID-19, USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative Wyoming Workshop, A Brave New World: lo legal, lo financiero y lo reputacional, FTI Consulting + Brigard Urrutia and MavTALK’s Women in Tech Panel with Google & Microsoft.
