09.18.14

WASHINGTON — Blue Engine Message & Media is pleased to announce the addition of Steve Posner to its rapidly growing strategic communications team. A veteran of the Obama White House, U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and Clinton Treasury Department, Steve offers Blue Engine clients nearly two decades of experience managing financial communications, including some of the most pressing budgetary and fiscal policy challenges our nation has faced in the recent past.

“We’re honored to have Steve join our team,” said Erik Smith, founder of Blue Engine. “His expertise communicating complex policy issues, particularly in the budget and fiscal arena, and his knowledge of the legislative and executive branches are an excellent complement to the assets of the Blue Engine team and will be a great benefit to our clients.”

Prior to joining Blue Engine, Steve served as the Associate Director for Strategic Planning and Communications at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he acted as the primary communications advisor to former Acting OMB Director Jeffrey Zients (now Director of the National Economic Council) and former OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell (now Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services).  In his role as head of OMB’s communications office, Steve was the lead spokesperson for OMB and coordinated communications around budget, management and regulatory issues with White House staff and all Federal agencies.  He was also the lead writer and editor of President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 and 2015 Budgets.  While at the White House, he navigated OMB’s communications efforts through the lead-up to the 2012 election, fiscal cliff negotiations, sequestration, and the government shutdown.

Prior to joining OMB, Steve served for 11 years as Communications Director and Deputy Communications Director for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee under former Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND).  Before his Budget Committee role, he worked in the Clinton Administration’s Treasury Department, where he was the Department’s spokesman for economic and tax policy issues during the tenure of former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

Steve started his communications career at the public affairs firm Powell Tate, where he worked as a Research Analyst and Account Executive in the firm’s International Trade Group.

A New Jersey native, Steve holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in History from Colgate University.