About us.
We are a communications consultancy helping people and businesses advance their reputations and agendas through intentional stakeholder engagement.
Acumen provides meaningful counsel and connects business priorities to strategic communications levers to move clients forward.
Our approach is direct and methodical.
Our work starts with answering a simple but often overlooked question: What are you trying to achieve? From there we work with you to create a bespoke communication strategy and plan to engage stakeholders critical to your success.
We are based in Oklahoma City with partners coast to coast.
MANAGING PARTNER
Matt Burns
Matt Burns is a corporate affairs and strategic advisor with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations navigate periods of growth, transformation and complexity.
He currently serves as managing partner of Acumen Strategies, where he advises biotechnology, health care, technology, private equity and growth-stage companies on corporate strategy, executive communications, stakeholder engagement and crisis management. He is also an active investor in numerous early-stage companies with a particular interest in breakthrough technologies.
Previously, Matt led communications for Guardant Health (Nasdaq: GH), GRAIL (Nasdaq: GRAL) and Scipher Medicine, including the commercial launches of GRAIL’s Galleri multi-cancer early detection blood test and Guardant Health’s Shield blood-based colorectal cancer screening test.
Earlier in his career, Matt served as chief communications officer for Health Care Service Corporation, vice president of corporate communications at UnitedHealth Group, and a managing director at Burson-Marsteller, where he advised organizations on high-profile corporate, public affairs and crisis matters, including the first U.S. health system to diagnose Ebola.
Before entering the corporate sector, Matt held government and political communications leadership roles in Washington, D.C., and New York.
Matt is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, the world’s leading professional association for senior corporate communications and public affairs executives.