Tandem Radio on the Bridge FM Saturday, December 15th with our Featured Guest: Ann Willets, CEO and President of Utopia Communications

The challenge for many businesses isn’t having a great product or service, but getting the word out.  How can we do that most effectively?  How can we recover after taking a hit like Sandy?  Ann Willets, CEO and President of Utopia Communications, discusses with Glen on Tandem Radio.

Ann Willets –

Ann has over two decades of experience conducting successful public relations campaigns in a variety of industries. She has worked in both large and small agency environments as well as in a corporate setting. In 1995, Ann founded Danlee Public Relations, which was quickly ranked as the fourth largest agency in the State of New Jersey by PR Week Magazine.

Ann sold the agency to STC Integrated Marketing in 2000 and managed the transition of staff and accounts for one year. She then joined KCSA, the nation’s 11th largest independent public and investor relations agency, where she assumed the role of managing director for the public relations division. During her tenure, KCSA was voted one of the nation’s top ten agencies to work for.

Ann left KCSA in September of 2005 to once again go out on her own. Prompted by the headline-grabbing corporate scandals of Enron and WorldCom, to the fall-out from Sarbannes-Oxley, Willets sought to offset the “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” method of many businesses and public relations firms. She set out to create a new type of communications firm: an ethically focused practice which represents organizations, ideas, people and companies that enhance the human condition and which operate within a strongly principled framework. She proudly named that firm Utopia Communications.

Taking the company’s mission one step further to help others in the communications industry, Willets became the first (and only) officially endorsed ethics trainer for Trust Inc. in North America. Trust, Inc., is A Practical Guide to the Alignment of Values, Organizational Goals and Results, written by Judith Rogala and Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. and outlines the LEAP methodology for ethics and values based leadership. Ann is also the ethics officer for the NJ Chapter of PRSA and a member of the Society for Business Ethics.

Ann holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and is completing a Master of Science degree in Communications Management from Syracuse University, for which she received an academic merit scholarship from the Women Executives in Public Relations Foundation.

In the course of her career, Ann has managed public relations/marketing communication programs for a variety of clients, garnering over 26 prestigious national awards.

Ann is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s prestigious Counselors Academy and is a member of its executive committee, as well as the Chair of its 2006 national conference • Sits on the board of the PRSA of NJ • Is a member of the Jersey Shore PR and Advertising Association • Is the former publicity committee member of the NY-International Association of Business Communicators • Member, Women Executives in PR • Former public relations chair for the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners • Honored in 2000 by Business News New Jersey as one of State’s “Top 40 Under 40″ • Honored in 2007 by NJBIZ Magazine as one of the top 50 Women Executives in NJ • Nationally recognized, Ann has been profiled and quoted on national radio and television, as well as in publications such as Dividends, Self-Employed Professional, Entrepreneur, Executive Female, Working Woman Magazine, PR Week and Working Mother, among others, in relation to her expertise in marketing communications and professional accomplishments.

Find out more about Ann Willets and Utopia Communications here.

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