Tanner Friedman Co-Founder Matt Friedman works with clients on many of their best business days and some of their most challenging. His clients have included: an international airline; multiple global pharmaceutical companies and research universities; print and broadcast media companies; top nonprofit organizations; innovative entrepreneurs; leading professional service firms and non-partisan voter information campaigns.

An inductee in the Public Relations Society of America (Detroit Chapter) Hall of Fame, Friedman is a trusted and recognized crisis communications strategist, helping to guide organizations of all sizes through periods of “bad news” and times of change, providing counsel to governance boards, legal advisers and senior executives.

His specialized strategic communications experience includes working with virtually all facets of health care communications, handling litigation communications for high-profile legal matters, including complex civil trials and Title IX cases, leading media relations operations for large business and policy events and strategic communications projects for multiple Division I college athletic departments and a “Power Four” athletic conference. Friedman is also an experienced media trainer, combining his news and PR experience to create customized training sessions for clients nationwide to learn how to tell their stories and deliver their messages through interviews with journalists.

He began his PR career at a large Metro Detroit firm in the 1990s, after a track record of success in broadcast journalism. Most recently, he was the lead news producer for Detroit station WDIV-TV (NBC)’s 6 p.m. news broadcast, at the time Michigan’s most watched evening news program. He also served as a news producer at WKMG-TV (CBS) in Orlando, Florida and WSB-TV (ABC) in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the top news writer on the nation’s highest-rated 11 p.m. newscast. Friedman began his professional broadcasting career on-the-air and behind-the-scenes covering news and sports at WWJ-AM radio (CBS) in Detroit. He first started at age 11 as a DJ and sports announcer at Metro Detroit community radio station WBFH-FM, where he ultimately became the station’s operations manager. He now frequently serves as a broadcasting, news, communications and PR analyst for newspapers, magazines, websites, podcasts and TV and radio stations. Friedman also hosted a statewide internet radio program focused on trends, “Communicating Business” on the Michigan Business Network.

Friedman is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, where he served as News Director at WJPZ-FM, at the time the nation’s highest-rated collegiate broadcast outlet. He was inducted into the WJPZ Radio Hall of Fame in 2012.

A leader in the Michigan community and beyond, Friedman served for seven years as Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Children’s Foundation a $100+ million statewide foundation that funds research, education and community benefit programs focusing on the health and wellness of kids and families and was a founding board member of the related Jamie Daniels Foundation. He currently serves on the Board of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, the Board of the Camp Nebagamon Scholarship Fund (which supports camps for children experiencing poverty and/or disabilities across the country) and on the Leadership Council for the national ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation. For more than 15 years, he participated in governance of what was Detroit’s largest health system, first as a Trustee of Children’s Hospital of Michigan and, later, of the oversight board during the system’s for-profit conversion known as “Legacy Detroit Medical Center.”

Earlier in his career, Friedman received recognition for his leadership as one of Crain’s Detroit Business’ “40 Under 40” and DBusiness magazine’s “30 In Their 30s,” for his business and community accomplishments before the age of 40.

He resides with his wife in West Bloomfield, Michigan and they feel fortunate both live nearby as they start their careers.