Executive Suite: Steve Haweeli, East Hampton
Steve Haweeli says he has done it all in the restaurant business and this helps his public relations clients. He sees the future in mobile phones and tablets. (Nov. 4, 2011) Credit: Randee Daddona
'I had a PR firm before I knew what public relations was," says Steve Haweeli, president of WordHampton Public Relations Inc. in East Hampton.
In his 20s, he had been working in Manhattan as a bartender and as a freelance writer when he was asked to write a news release for a restaurant. "What's that? Can you show me one?" he says he recalls asking.
Haweeli, now 57, caught on quickly. He moved to East Hampton, where he tended bar for Nick & Toni's, the power restaurant that became his first client when he opened his business in 1992 in the basement of his home.
The agency, managing some 60 Facebook pages and 41 Twitter accounts for clients, now represents hospitality and real estate businesses, as well as events such as Long Island Restaurant Week.
On the drawing board? A look at possibly "taking our package of services to other geographic markets," he says.
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