Cynthia A. Fenneman
President / CEO
American Public Television

Cynthia A. Fenneman was appointed American Public Television’s fourth
president and CEO, effective January 2001, by the company’s Board of
Trustees. Formerly president of Fenneman Productions, Inc., she is a
broadcasting and production executive with 28 years of experience in
commercial, public and network cable television. Fenneman has been awarded more than 30 international, national and regional awards, including 12 regional Emmys, a Peabody, and a CableAce.

Prior to APT, she was president of Fenneman Productions, a television
production and consulting company for six years. She was executive producer for A&E Biography, PBS’s Ciao Italia and several American Public Television fundraising specials. From 1999 to 2001, Fenneman was part of the launch team for the Discovery Health Channel as its major projects executive. For five years prior, she was the special projects director for PBS’s Local Programming Initiative and The Democracy Project.

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, Fenneman worked in production and programming with the Westinghouse Broadcasting company for ten years: at KYW-TV in Philadelphia as executive producer of programming, senior producer for Evening/PM Magazine, London executive producer for Group W’s Live-Aid special, and producer of award-winning news, public affairs, documentary, live talk, and entertainment programs; at KPIX-TV San Francisco as a producer for the #1 morning show, and WJZ-TV Baltimore in nightly news. In 1986, Fenneman relocated to northern New England and worked at New Hampshire Public Television for eight years, first as executive producer of local and national productions then as director of broadcasting. At NHPTV, she led a staff that doubled the station’s viewership, productivity and award-winning programs within three years.

Fenneman is a member of the Latino Public Broadcasting Board of Directors and ATAS. She has been a panelist for the duPont – Columbia Awards and the National Endowment for the Arts. Fenneman has been a member of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts Promotion Committee, the New Hampshire Humanities Council Media Committee, the New Hampshire Film and TV Commission, the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters executive board, and past Chair of the Children’s Museum of Portsmouth. Fenneman began her career as an assistant account executive for ad agency VanSant Dugdale and
as a writer for the Baltimore News American. She has a B.S. degree from the University of Maryland’s Journalism School.