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She was knee-deep in leading the marketing department at the Journal Sentinel when her father, public school teacher Alan Arentsen, fell terminally ill. “I could not do that job and take care of my dad,” says Zizzo, who had also just welcomed her first son. She decided to continue the job on a contract basis, juggling the demands of new motherhood and caring for her father while also quietly building a consulting business of her own. “One year later, I had seven people working in the basement of my home, and I had done $7 million in sales,” Zizzo recalls. And just like that, her eponymous marketing agency Zizzo Group Engagement Marketing (ZG) was born.
“I like to create disruption,” muses Anne Zizzo, when chronicling the trajectory of her career.
Celebrate this year’s winners of the Betty Awards!
The business grew organically, says Zizzo, and she acquired other companies to add on services. Inspired by her upbringing and to honor her father’s legacy, she established a dedicated nonprofit practice within ZG and never says no to a nonprofit in need of the agency’s services. Zizzo’s commitment to the community extends into her extensive board involvement, which includes advisory roles within the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee, Marcus Performing Arts Center, Froedtert ThedaCare and Summerfest’s parent, Milwaukee World Festival Inc.
Beyond marketing and philanthropy, Zizzo also successfully broke into a new sector – commercial real estate, a historically male-dominated industry – in 2013, when she purchased a portion of a Historic Third Ward building. That building, along with a Walker’s Point property acquired in 2022, have been home to ZG’s offices as well as commercial tenants.
Her tenacity is matched by a fierce sense of independence – one that has allowed Zizzo to build, evolve and disrupt on her own terms. “I don’t have any partners,” says Zizzo. “I don’t have any shareholders. I don’t have a board of directors. That’s not a complaint. It allows me to be me and the company to do what it does. … It’s a magical, magical ride.”
