Nicole Petallides and the New FOX Business Network

New York.- By Vicki J. Yiannias
Nicole Petallides, one of the first two anchors on the new FOX Business Network, has got it all. Exemplifying the 21st century woman, the 36-year old blonde bombshell has astonishing stamina and energy, a brain for business, social savvy, and a family.

The Greek News caught up by phone with Nicole at the New York Stock Exchange, just long enough to get some of her thoughts on her job, and life in general.

TGN: Youʼve reported on a wide range of topics on FOX 5, the cable television business, the health bill, sports, and more. Which of these topics have you found most interesting?

NP: If you really want me to name one thing, Iʼll come up with it, but the truth of the matter is that I really love this job because of its diversity, because itʼs well rounded. You can follow the market and talk to a zillion people, but on FOX 5 youʼre always watching something immediate, something new and thatʼs really what I love about my job…every day is totally different than the day before.

Also I meet a lot of great people, from actors to business leaders from different countries….recently we had the Greek Minister of Finance here; we had the Disney people here with Amy Adams from “Enchanted”. Over my years here Iʼve met Joe Torey, Reggie Jackson, George Foreman, and on and on.

TGN: It sounds exciting.

NP: Yes! It really is. The other thing that I really love is that I have a mix of being an anchor in the morning, on-set, and delivering news, and then coming down to the NYSE, where Iʼve been for ten years beginning with Dow Jones Television, CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and now FOX…so I have a lot of contacts, a lot of friends.

The people at FOX are such a great, energetic, smart group.

TGN: So itʼs like home.

NP: Yes, and whatʼs really nice is that the traders are so great…theyʼll walk by, pass me a ticket, write a ticker symbol on it, and say, “check this out,” and it may be something I might not have noticed. They really give you insight, a good view of whatʼs going on, because a lot of these people have been down here for decades. They also put things into perspective, because if thereʼs a big swing you donʼt want to freak out….they say “look, this is one day, this is not forever”, and thatʼs also part of it, itʼs sort of presenting things in a way that we can all understand, and keeping it all in perspective.

TGN: Did you study business at American University?

NP: I was always a numbers girl, my math SAT was off the charts. In college I did both communications and business but I loved the television side of it.

TGN: Your mother, Fani Petallides Holliday, was the founder and chief operating officer of Proini, a Greek-language daily newspaper, and of The Greek American, an English-language weekly newspaper. Were you influenced by her media involvement?

NP: The paper was my motherʼs baby. She did a great job and I donʼt think anybody else could have moved that paper along that way. While I was so proud of her that wasnʼt the direction I wanted to take my life.

But I guess the media is in my blood, because I always enjoyed that she was always in communication. Our phone would ring at night, in the morning, on the weekend. Weʼd always be looking at the news, so I think that journalism is in my blood, too. I think that being “fair” is really key, too.

TGN: Are your broadcasts scripted?

NP: I write and ad lib all day here at the NYSE. There is no teleprompter, just gathering information from traders and newswires and financial programs and then turning it around on a dime in breaking news fashion. I deliver the news on the fly every half hour.

The whole challenge is to take it in, understand it, and as quickly as you can, turn it around and deliver it to the viewer in a way that they can understand it and use it to their advantage.

TGN: Delivering on the dime sounds difficult. Does anything make it easier?

NP: I love to talk about names that we all know, like Starbucks, Nike, Disney. I think thatʼs also part of the MO of FBN, to bring in not only market-knowledgeable traders, but regular people, like me, like our families. You donʼt have to be a multimillionaire to get into the stock market; it doesnʼt have to be a huge investment. I just talked to someone that bought two shares of Google. You can watch and learn, and teach your children.

TGN: Were you ever interested in acting?

NP: Oh yeah! I donʼt know if thatʼs bad or good! I think I just liked to have fun and loved trying new things. I was on some dance show when I was a kid; I loved high school plays and I got the lead roles. I even tried out for Wonder Woman at Warner Brothers! I did have a hand in there just a little bit, but I never really went to acting school, or to Hollywood.

TGN: Do you think that women in America have a different approach to business than men?

NP: I donʼt think so. Women are perceived as being more emotional and thereʼs no room for that. Iʼve worked very closely with CNBCʼs Maria Bartiromo a leader in broadcast business journalism, Erin Burnett, and others at Bloomberg. There are so many successful women in business like my mother, who have their own companies, etc.

I can only speak for myself: Iʼm a very sensitive person, and Iʼm very caring. Iʼm very much a woman in that way, but when Iʼm working I separate the two. Many years ago I found myself crying in the bathroom, and I thought, “What are you doing? No guy would be crying in the bathroom!” I also learned there was no room for emotion when I played sports — varsity on every team throughout high school and soccer in college.

When emotions get in the way you canʼt function clearly, you donʼt present well, either when youʼre on or off camera. My MO is: the hotter the fire, the cooler I get!

WHO SHE IS

Nicole Anais Petallides joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in September 2007 as an anchor. Prior to joining FOX, she was an anchor at Bloomberg Television where she reported from the New York Stock Exchange for the nationally syndicated Bloomberg Business Report and Bloomberg Market Update. While at Bloomberg, Petallides also covered weekend news and served as a business news anchor for CW-11ʼs WPIX morning news program in New York.

Before joining Bloomberg, Petallides served as an assistant producer for CNBC, where she produced daily floor reports from the NYSE. Prior to CNBC, she was a segment producer for Dow Jones Televisionʼs The Wall Street Journal Report with Consuelo Mack and international programs Asian Business News and European Business News. Petallides has also contributed to FOX affiliate WNYWʼs morning show Good Day New York, NY1 News, CNN and News 12 Long Island.

A Long Island, New York native, she graduated from American University in 1993.

Petallides is the daughter of Fannie Petallides Holliday and John C. Petallides. Her father owns U.S. Amfax, a New York company that does telemarketing and promotions. In 1998 she married Dr. Nicholas Tsiolas, a dentist in Manhattan, in a ceremony performed by Archbishop Spyridon, the Greek Orthodox primate of the United States.

They have two sons, Eric (Eraklis), four, and Michael (Mihalis) three.