BIO
Heidi
David was born a coal miner’s daughter in the badlands of
Scarsdale. For those of you who’ve never heard of Scarsdale
it’s Westchester’s answer to Great Neck. And for those of
you who’ve never heard of Great Neck, it’s Long Island’s
answer to Beverly Hills.
It didn’t take long for advertising to enter her life. One
morning at Fox Meadow elementary school innocently walking
the yard a heated discussion began.
“My father’s a doctor.”
“My pop’s a lawyer.”
“My dad’s an investment banker.”
Suddenly all eyes were upon her and with the authority of a
worldly sage Heidi declared, “My daddy is the president of
the trade association for radio.” Some confused glances and
a few stray crickets later, she boldly went where no five
year old had gone before. “He gets people to advertise on
the radio,” Heidi explained.
And then her schoolyard chums popped some bubblegum and
uttered those two fateful words. “What’s advertising?”
Cut to 16 years later. After working during her college
years for a woman who had a grant from the Woodrow Wilson
Foundation to interview famous defectors of the Russian
theater. And then interning at the New York Shakespeare
Festival during the 200th
anniversary
performance of A Chorus Line, it was clear no ordinary
career would do for Heidi. With her Vassar degree in hand
she went out into the world looking for a raison d’etre.
Heidi knew she needed to find a career where art meets
commerce but what oh what might that be? Suddenly she
recalled the fated words that had entered her life long
ago, “What’s advertising?” The rest as they say is history.
Heidi began her advertising career as a floater at Lois
Pitts Gershon working for the infamous George Lois. A man
as well known for his award winning ‘I want my MTV’ ad
campaign as he was for his foul language and tell it like
it is attitude. But there was only so much answering phones
and filing a girl with big dreams could stand. And when her
take-off-your-glasses-Miss-Phelps moment didn’t materialize
Heidi went searching for something new.
While writing and directing a documentary for her hometown
on the local summer music theater program and taking a
course on production at the New School it occurred to Heidi
that she was most well suited to become a producer. So off
she went to the production department at FCB/Leber Katz to
hone her craft. Under the tutelage of Broadcast Production
Director, Herb Miller, Heidi learned all there was to know
about the fast paced and exciting world of production.
In her seventeen years at FCB (currently DraftFCB) Heidi
has produced ads for many industries from packaged goods,
to pharmaceuticals, to telecommunications. She’s supervised
shoots throughout the world in all sorts of situations from
the bottom of a 30-foot blender in the middle of the
Australian outback to the runway at LAX in the middle of
rush hour.
In addition to all her general production knowledge, Heidi
is extremely well versed in all types of animation. Over
the years she has developed a reputation for being the
go-to-producer on all animation projects at FCB. Unlike
traditional productions these assignments often last for
several months at a time. She has also been called upon to
train clients in these complicated art forms. It is Heidi’s
stamina and strong attention to detail that makes her so
well suited for these productions.
Time and time again Heidi has used her strong creative
problem solving skills to produce high end, quality
advertising often with small budgets and tight timetables.
In a field where multi disciplinary skills are a necessity
Heidi has been highly praised as much for her research
& budgetary skills as for her creative and
communications skills. Her reputation for creating and
implementing innovative approaches to assignments is
unparalleled. She has even been known to collaborate with
copywriters and art directors to fine-tune creative
concepts where necessary.
In her spare time Heidi is a writer working on numerous
projects both short and long formats. She has spent the
past several years working on a novel that she hopes one
day to publish. She has also studied sculpture, enjoys
carving in stone, and is a self-taught painter as well.
Finally, if you’re ever lucky enough to visit Heidi’s
kitchen let me assure you that her chocolate espresso
cheesecake could make you fall to your knees and get
religion.
