Joining the ARA of Arizona board is just the latest step in the diverse and very international rental career of Maureen Wendelberger, sales manager, Event Rents, Phoenix.
It all started in Toronto about three decades ago. “In the early 1990s, I bought a small balloon store just outside of Toronto. A few years later, I acquired a party rental business,” she says.
While she was still in the balloon industry, she made business contacts in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. “When my life took a turn, there was the offer of ‘Did I want to do events in Dubai?’ So there I went,” Wendelberger says.
After that, she handled events in Japan and later landed in Los Angeles, where she worked for Classic Party Rentals for 15 years. She and her husband then headed to Boston, where she was the senior director of supply chain for PEAK Event Services. Then the pandemic hit and everything came to a standstill.
In June 2020, her husband, Patrick, who also works in the event industry, was hired by PRO EM National Event Services, so they headed to Phoenix.
After going through the pandemic and, not being employed for the first time since she was 14, Wendelberger wasn’t sure she wanted to get back into the event rental industry, but the lure of events called her back.
“It’s in my blood. It’s been my life. I would have been terrified to leave the event rental industry,” she says. “In this industry, two days are never the same. You can interact with such a vast range of people, from homeowners and wedding planners to mechanical engineers and health care professionals. I always have been known as ‘the rental girl.’ At networking events, people would say, ‘If you need glasses or a tent, you go talk to her. She is the rental girl.’ They had no idea what my first name was, and that was OK with me. I have worn that moniker with pride,” she says.
In March, she joined Event Rents. “I had faith in the leadership from our corporate office in Denver. They have built a quality brand in Phoenix with a tremendous reputation and a family feel. I believe that they had done well surviving the pandemic and would continue to support and do the right things for the business to thrive,” she says.
When she heard about the opportunity to join the ARA of Arizona board, she jumped at the chance.
“Now more than ever it is time to give back. It is time to recruit new people. In my new role, I have had to recruit and build a sales team. It is now time to engage and teach people what we do and be safer than we have ever been. This is our opportunity for change. If we are ever going to change things in the rental business, now is the time,” Wendelberger says.
She brings a lot of rental experience to her new board position. “Both from the operational and sales side, I understand it. I am super-safety focused. With my whole heart and soul, I also believe in the ARA [American Rental Association]. I always have. Back when I was in my 20s and had my little business in Canada, I started going to the shows,” she says.
The impacts of the pandemic have taught Wendelberger many things. One of the most important is that “it is always about the people,” she says. “I want to keep my world always about the people. I have a large circle of rental friends who have supported each other through COVID. I have taken part in the ARA Facebook pages, including the Women in Rental Facebook page. I would love to see that continue as well as the sharing of ideas and wealth of knowledge. If one company has a better or safer idea, the whole industry gets better,” she says.
Being a new board member, she wants to first “understand the lay of the land and get my feet wet. I have sat on other boards. I was thrilled to see that the ARA of Arizona board ran like other boards I have been a member of. I want to help in any way I can. Once I understand my role, I would like to help plan more networking and educational events for members so we can gather and learn from each other,” she says.