Annually he leads dozens of programs for corporations, trade associations, and educational institutions. Meeting planners feel Lou is a great choice for a kickoff speaker. His special blend of content, energy and fun really gets people excited.

Lou has been involved in management, motivation and leadership roles since 1970 and was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan's Executive Education Center from 1980-2000. He has studied peak performers for more than 30 years, conducting more than 2,000 interviews with top achievers from the local to the international level.

Lou spent nearly 15 years in the broadcasting business, serving in top positions ranging from on-air personality to news manager, talk show host, and corporate management training director.

He is a Certified Speaking Professional (a designation of the National Speakers Association reserved for less than 10% of the speakers worldwide). In 1992, the National Speakers Association awarded Lou the coveted CPAE Award (Council of Peers Award for Excellence) recognizing his years of professional excellence and dedication.

Lou is also a member of Platform Professionals, a group of six experienced speakers who all use original, clean humor in their presentations.

Experience

Lou Heckler has been making a living from the printed and spoken word since he was 14. In his teenage years, he was hired to do a community news column for “The Signal Item,” a weekly newspaper near his hometown in Pittsburgh, PA.

Education

While Lou was receiving dual degrees in Journalism and Radio-TV-Motion Pictures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he also served as news editor and anchorman on the WUNC-TV public television system. By the time he was graduated from the University, he had already logged over 1,000 live television broadcasts.

Military Service

Lou joined the US Army six months after graduation. During his two and a half years of service, Lou served as a speech instructor and course supervisor at the Defense Information School (then at Fort Harrison, IN). The school trained broadcasters and public affairs people for all the US military branches and for military personnel and civilians from many foreign countries. On the weekends, he was a news anchorman at WTTV, an independent television station serving Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN.

Broadcast Background

When Lou returned to television, he first served as News Director of an NBC television affiliate in Richmond, VA and then as Community Affairs Director at WBTV in Charlotte. For the last year and half of Lou’s television career, he served WBTV’s parent corporation (Jefferson Pilot Communications) as its management training director.

In an era of specialists, Lou Heckler is a bit of an anachronism…but we think you’ll find him a good anachronism.

He is equally at home handling your needs for a keynoter as well as leading breakout sessions later in the day.

He can emcee your final banquet or your entire convention.

Because of Lou’s background in television (eight years of which were in news reporting and anchoring), he can kick off your meeting, attend the rest of the sessions and take notes, and then provide your attendees with a humorous and poignant summary at the close of the event.

Since he also conducted more than 2,000 live television interviews, he can also serve as an interviewer up on the stage if you have an executive or other speaker who is more comfortable answering questions than going it alone.

So, maybe Lou is really such an anachronism after all – maybe he’s just a man of many talents who can help your meeting be a huge success!

Self-Employment

Always of an entrepreneurial spirit, Lou then began his full-time speaking career in March of 1980, performing keynote speeches and conducting training seminars on a variety of management topics.

The University of Michigan tapped Lou to join the adjunct faculty at their Executive Education Center (part of the Graduate School of Business Administration) and that launched a 19-year relationship during which Lou led more than 200 programs for the University in Ann Arbor, as well as a number of on-site programs in New York City, Hong Kong, Atlantic City, Chicago, and a number of cities throughout Michigan. He maintained this post while still at the helm of his own business.

In Lou Heckler, you are getting a seasoned educator and performer, one who is comfortable in small venues of a few dozen people and equally at home on a main stage in front of thousands. His easy, intimate style makes audience members feel he is speaking right to them as he delivers a message filled with high concepts, hilarious insights, and hope.