UWW Alumni Interview: Heidi Fendos

Heidi Fendos, CEO of Fendos PR Consulting Inc. elaborates on her time at UW-Whitewater and her professional life after college.

My name is Heidi Fendos and I am a 1992 graduate of UW-Whitewaters communication program. One thing I always knew I wanted to do, I always had an interest in the field of communication going into middle school I was very involved in forensics than in high school stayed involved in forensics and drama and really like the whole communications aspect, I liked writing but didn't want to be a broadcaster, didn't want to work those hours then I learned about the field of pr and decided this was what I defiantly wanted to do. I'm lucky I knew I wanted to do this. My first job after college was at the Independent Community Bankers Association of Wisconsin. I was hired as their first pr, marketing and education director. I was asked to set up a pr and marketing department that represented 200 community banks around greater Wisconsin. It was a wonderful opportunity for me. I got to do all different sorts of things from setting up a monthly news letter for them, to hosting different events, from being a spokes person for them to planning different educational seminars for all segments of the banking staff. But what I learned quickly was that I didn't like the banking industry I didn't enjoy it but I liked nonprofit work. I got a lot out of it I got my hands on a lot of different areas and expertise and it transferred very well into the agency world, which was my next job.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• UW-Whitewater
• UWW
• PR
• Public Relations
• Alumni
• Heidi Fendos

[KMAndersen11]

It was great hearing about what got her to where she is today. Very good and helpful questions.

[MsPR4Life]

I like the questions given to her because they were straight forward and covered a lot of important ground about PR.

[69Davie]

Good variety of questions and clear vocal quality.

[ThreepwoodTM]

It was interesting to here her talk about working with a client that she was uncomfortable with. That's a difficult issue that is not mentioned very often.

[mandygal66]

I liked the relaxed feel of this video.

[snappeapple08]

I can relate to her realizig that her inital path was not what she really wanted to do because I was the same way

[bciszek5]

Awesome beginning and ending screens! The video itself was very clear and easy to follow and understand!

[GroveSM07]

great to see she opened her own firm!

[tpottsj]

Didn't like the questions on the screen when she was talking. Liked the way you positioned the camera to sit up a little higher and look down at her.

-Tpotts

[novotnyj07]

lots of great info!!!