Pete Wentz, executive director of APCO’s Chicago office, provides clients with expertise in corporate reputation, crisis, financial and litigation communication and strategic planning. He also has extensive experience in higher education.
Mr. Wentz has provided crisis and litigation communication for a number of clients, including a major financial services firm, a leading book retailer, an influential trade association and leading energy company. He has also provided merger and acquisition communications counseling to a number of companies, including United Airlines in its merger with Continental Airlines, particularly directed towards employees, customers and other key audiences.
Mr. Wentz has provided strategic planning and communication consulting services to several of the nation’s leading universities, including the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, Pomona College and the law schools of Northwestern University, Indiana University, Loyola University, DePaul University, Campbell University and the universities of Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Miami and Washington. He has also developed and implemented communication programs for a number of law firms.
For 17 years, Mr. Wentz served as vice president of corporate communication and law for Helene Curtis Industries, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, where he led all aspects of the company’s public relations program, including reputation management, investor relations and crisis communication.
Mr. Wentz next served as a principal and general manager for the Chicago office of The Dilenschneider Group, a national strategic public relations and crisis management firm. In that capacity, he provided reputation enhancement and crisis management counseling for corporations, Internet businesses – including a leading brokerage firm – investment banks and law firms.
Mr. Wentz was the associate dean of Northwestern University School of Law, where he was responsible for strategic planning and public relations. He continues to teach a course that includes crisis management and the law. In addition, Mr. Wentz served as an attorney at Sidley Austin and a legislative assistant to Senator Joseph R. Biden.
He is a member of the board of trustees of Kendall College of Chicago and formerly served as president and board member of Friends of the Chicago River and as a board member of WBEZ, Chicago’s public radio station.
Mr. Wentz is a graduate of Trinity College and Northwestern University School of Law, where he was elected as a member of Order of the Coif.
