Year Graduated:
1993
Major:
Public Relations + Italian
First job out of college:
Assistant account executive, The Rockey Company (now H&K)
Biography:
Fernando Vivanco is senior director, corporate communications for Minneapolis-
based Medtronic, the global leader in medical technology. He is responsible for
internal and external communications. His experience includes employee
communications, media relations, crisis communications, issues management
and advocacy communications on a global level for Fortune 100 companies.
He joined Medtronic in May, 2014 from Honeywell where he was director of
global business and internal communications in the company’s largest business
unit that manufactures environmental controls, building solutions, personal
protective equipment, life safety, security, sensing, scanning and mobility
products.
Prior to joining Honeywell in 2011, he held a number of communications
leadership positions with Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company. He
supported many defense programs that are critical to national security and
humanitarian efforts. Fernando helped launch inflight email and internet access,
and managed international communications for Boeing’s commercial airplanes
group across Europe, North America and South America. His crisis
communications experience includes on-site work on high-profile tragedies such
as the accident of LAPA Flight 3142 in Buenos Aires and Alaska Airlines Flight
261 off the coast of Southern California.
Prior to first joining Boeing in 1997, Fernando worked for The Rockey Company
in Seattle, which is now Hill&Knowlton, where he provided communications
support to several clients including Nintendo, REI, Brooks Sports and
Ticketmaster.
Fernando earned undergraduate degrees in public relations and Italian from
Brigham Young University and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He is
proficient in both Spanish and Italian.