May 21, 2026
May 21, 2026
Meghan Fintland has built a career on navigating complexity—from launching Zelle at Early Warning to running global crisis communications at HPE and corporate PR at NetApp. Today, as the head of global PR at Rubrik, she oversees a communications operation that spans 13 regions and 13 independent agencies. What makes her approach stand out isn't the scale itself, but the philosophy underneath it; you can't centralize your way to a great global program. You have to earn trust in every market, and that starts with listening.
I sat down with Meghan to talk about what it actually takes to run global communications at a cybersecurity company in the age of AI, and where she thinks the discipline is headed.
You manage a global PR program across 13 regions with supporting agencies. What's your north star for keeping it coherent without making it feel like a headquarters mandate?
I've had to let go of the idea that what works here works everywhere. What works in Australia won't necessarily work in France or Japan. I empower our agencies and in-country teams to own their markets. They're the experts. I'm there to learn from them and give them the tools to succeed.
I've had to let go of the idea that what works here works everywhere. What works in Australia won't necessarily work in France or Japan.
For major product launches, we've moved away from a sequential briefing model where HQ shares information and it trickles out. Instead, we now bring everyone in at the same time. For our Rubrik Agent Cloud and Agent Rewind announcements, we ran simultaneous briefing sessions across EMEA and APJ time zones, including country spokespeople, so everyone had the full picture from day one. From there, agencies could decide how to sequence and adapt the story in their market, whether they were going to do a big launch, wait on certain holidays, or focus on a specific angle that resonates locally. That level of agency autonomy is what actually makes global launches land.
Ultimately, they know their regions best. My role is to provide that central message for them to build from. Humility and trust go a long way when running a global team.
Cultural intelligence seems to be a real throughline for how you operate. Have you encountered any surprises in how different markets approach communications?
I can't stop recommending a book my niece brought to my attention called The Culture Map by Erin Meyer. It's built around real scenarios that illustrate how dramatically working styles differ and how easy it is to create friction without realizing it.
One example that stuck with me from the book: a manager sent a follow-up email to her team in Indonesia summarizing the meeting's action items. Standard practice, right? Her team was insulted. To them, sending a recap implied she didn't trust them to follow through. That kind of cultural nuance isn't something you can shortcut. You have to build real relationships and be willing to fail and learn.
Cultural nuance isn't something you can shortcut. You have to build real relationships and be willing to fail and learn.
We see this play out in how we scope our agencies, too. In Italy, all we do is media relations. In the Netherlands, it's heavily bylines. In the U.S., a mix of both. The scope has to match the market, not the other way around.
Let's talk about AI. Rubrik is an AI-first company. Your CEO, Bipul Sinha is out there actively championing it. How does that translate to your communications team's approach?
We have a formal AI governance committee comprised of legal, IT, and internal communications, and they manage which tools are approved for use and how. They've built an internal AI toolkit on our intranet with approved tools, guidance on best practices, and a process for submitting new tools for review. It's a living thing; what's approved evolves constantly.
Within that framework, the comms team uses Gemini heavily. The most meaningful unlock for us has come from a member of our marketing team, Amanda, who returned from maternity leave with a mission to go deep on AI. She's a former journalist and an incredibly strong writer, and she channeled all of that into building a Gemini Gem for press releases.
The Gem isn't perfect, but it's changing how we work. We feed it our call notes, sourcing details, and brand guidelines and it structures a draft release in our tone. That starting point alone eliminates hours of staring at a blank page. It also forces better discipline earlier in the process, because you have to actually organize your thinking to give it useful inputs.
Amanda is a great example of what individual enthusiasm for AI can do for a whole team when it's pointed in the right direction.
Where have you seen AI fall short or create problems you didn't anticipate?
Translation, to be honest. We recently tried a process where agencies outside the U.S. drafted bylines in their local language and used AI to translate them into English. It was a great learning experience, but it highlighted that AI often misses the subtleties of language. For instance, words like “trust” and “credibility” were used interchangeably. This confirmed for us that a human always has to be the last set of eyes, especially in our industry where technical precision and narrative nuance are critical.
A human always has to be the last set of eyes, especially in our industry where technical precision and narrative nuance are critical.
Where do you hope your team's AI capabilities will be a year from now?
I'd love for us to build something proprietary, such as a set of tools and Gems that are genuinely embedded in how we work, not just novelties people use occasionally.
One area I'm watching closely is AI-driven media prep. There are tools emerging now that allow you to input a spokesperson's name, the publication, the journalist, and it generates the most likely questions that person will ask, so you can train the executive accordingly. The PR person is still in the room setting strategy and coaching style, but the research and scenario-planning work is handled. That's a real time multiplier.
The other area is in creating executive briefing documents customized to each spokesperson’s preferences. Our CEO wants a one-pager, while other executives want word-for-word guidance on what to say. Until now, we’ve been building those individually, every time. The vision is Gems that are trained on each executive's preferences for format, tone and level of detail. Then we can generate a first draft that actually fits the person, not a generic template. That's where we're headed.
Our vision is Gems that are trained on each executive's preferences for format, tone and level of detail. Then we can generate a first draft that actually fits the person, not a generic template.
What's the most important thing you've learned about leading a global communications program?
Be patient. Be open-minded. And be willing to fail and learn.
The thing I keep coming back to after more than two years in this role is that I've become a better person from it personally, not just professionally. Waking up in the morning with Amsterdam coming online and going to bed with India wrapping up, working with people who have completely different styles and completely different markets—there's a gift in that, if you're willing to receive it. I love the gifts I receive.
Meghan Fintland is the Head of Global Public Relations at Rubrik. This interview is part of Signalmakers, a Mission North series featuring communications leaders who are shaping how stories get told in an AI-driven world.
