Backbone Media, a public relations and media agency servicing clients in the active outdoor lifestyle space, has named Greg Williams as a partner and hired Elinor Fish, former managing editor for Trail Runner magazine, as its newest account manager.


Williams joins partners Penn Newhard and Nate Simmons in leading the agency, with a particular focus on the rapidly growing media division.


Williams started at Backbone in 2005 and has a well-rounded perspective on the business having worked in the PR department before re-launching the company’s media division. With his leadership, media has expanded to six full-time staff and over a dozen clients including New Belgium Brewing, Eddie Bauer, Aspen Snowmass, SmartWool, Polartec, Outdoor Research, La Sportiva, Far Bank, Boa, and Black Diamond. In the last 24 months, the media division has expanded its capabilities to optimize advertising dollars across print, digital, out-of-home, radio and television.


“The digital advertising arena and its natural overlap with Backbone’s social media consulting business and public relations efforts has created tremendous synergy that will be a major driver of growth for our company,” stated partner Nate Simmons. “Greg has played a leadership role in the development of these capabilities at Backbone and we’re proud to have him as a partner in the company.”


I am thrilled to join the leadership team at Backbone and serve the wonderful clients and people we work with at those brands,” says Williams.   “We have the strongest team we have ever had at Backbone.”


Penn Newhard commented, “Greg has always been very entrepreneurially minded focusing on the overall success of the company and striving to constantly raise our game. Making him an partner was a natural evolution.”


Prior to Backbone Media, Williams was the director of advertising sales for Climbing Magazine, admissions director for the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, and a founding partner in one of the country’s pioneering climbing gyms, The Philadelphia Rock Gym. He lives in Carbondale with his wife Carolyn, daughter Sage and son Luke. He is an avid climber, skier and fly fisherman with an emphasis on “creating memorable mountain experiences with friends and family.”


Working as the account manager for Backbone clients Newton Running and Teva, Fish will draw from a PR background cultivated during her time in media relations and tourism marketing in her home country of Canada, where she worked for Banff Lake Louise Tourism and Travel Alberta International.


“Bringing Elinor to Backbone is a real coup for us,” said Simmons. “Her background in the outdoor industry and her knowledge of footwear will be a tremendous asset to our team.”

Fish also brings an entrepreneurial spirit to her new post. For 10 years, she has led running camps and clinics in Canada and Colorado, and last year founded Run Wild Retreats, a company offering trail running adventures for women designed to refresh the spirit and invigorate the body with trail running, yoga and expert-led classes in running technique, sports nutrition, injury prevention, gear selection and more.


A lifelong outdoor enthusiast, she grew up in a small ski town in British Columbia and has run competitively for 20 years in cross country and trail ultrarunning. In 2010, she completed her first 100-mile race, the Leadville Trail 100 in Leadville, CO.