Jan Jacobs believes that as creators we must protect the power of a brand at all costs. Through deep collaboration with client partners there is a powerful opportunity to create long-term brand platforms that transform organizations.

In 2007 he formed Johannes Leonardo in partnership with fellow creative Leo Premutico. The independent agency was founded out of the belief that brands had to fundamentally change their relationships with consumers, and to inspire courageous acts that lead to true advertising effectiveness.

Over the course of his 25+ year career in advertising, Jacobs’ ideas have helped transform some of the world’s most iconic and influential companies. The agency’s “Drive Bigger” platform for Volkswagen is helping to lead a turnaround for the world’s largest automaker. MassMutual’s “Live Mutual" platform is helping to modernize the 165 year old insurance company into a category leader. While their repositioning of adidas Originals into challengers of the status quo with their “Strikethrough” campaign, has contributed to an unprecedented turnaround for the company and was awarded multiple effectiveness and creative awards, including the 2017 Entertainment for Music Grand Prix.

Johannes Leonardo has also repeatedly been called upon by the world’s leading technology companies - Amazon and Google. Helping to move their advertising industry toward a more modern form of storytelling for the latter, resulting in the mobile Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival for their Google Re:Brief campaign.

Most recently, the agency was named Adweek’s Breaththrough Agency of the Year in 2019 and #3 AdAge’s Top Ten ‘A-List’ in 2020.

Jacobs fervently believes it’s the job of the agency to instill courage in their clients. And doing so requires deep collaboration, valued partnership, and listening.

Jacobs’ work has been recognized at every major international award show including, the One Show, D&AD, Effies, the Clios and Cannes Lions. He previously held a jury chair of the South African award show, The Loeries, and twice has been featured in Creativity's 50 Most Influential People. Finally, Jacobs’ and Premutico’s Tide ‘Talking Stain’ commercial was nominated as one of the top twenty Super Bowl ads of all time.

In the early days of his career, Jacobs was closely involved with the advertising industry in South Africa starting at Y&R Cape Town followed by stints at Ogilvy and later at TBWA Hunt Lascaris. During this time his work contributed to the latter two agencies becoming Ad Age’s International Agency of the year. He won four Loerie Grands Prix in his last three years in SA, and the country’s first Gold Cyber Lion at Cannes. Jacobs was lured overseas to Bozell New York in 2011, where he oversaw the 9/11 New York Times print campaign. At Bozell he twice won the Newspaper Association’s award for the best press advertising in America, as well as third place in Agency of the Year at Cannes.

Jacobs lives in Manhattan with his wife Amber and three kids ages 15, 13 and 10. When he is not helping his agency create great work, he’s most likely off surfing.

Leo Premutico believes that today’s communication era presents every company with the opportunity to have a rich, meaningful and effective existence. But that there’s only one way to do so - by tapping into the power of courageous creativity.

In 2007 he formed Johannes Leonardo in partnership with Jan Jacobs. A creative agency designed for an era where ‘the consumer is the medium’ with a mission to inspire the courageous acts that lead to true advertising effectiveness.

For over a decade now his ideas have helped transform some of the world’s most iconic and influential companies. The agency’s “Drive Bigger” platform for Volkswagen is helping to lead a turnaround for the world’s largest automaker. MassMutual’s “Live Mutual" platform is helping to modernize the 165 year old insurance company into a category leader. While their repositioning of adidas Originals into challengers of the status quo with their “Strikethrough” campaign, has contributed to an unprecedented turnaround for the company and was awarded multiple effectiveness and creative awards, including the 2017 Entertainment for Music Grand Prix.

Johannes Leonardo has also repeatedly been called upon by the world’s leading technology companies - Amazon and Google. Helping to move their advertising industry toward a more modern form of storytelling for the latter, resulting in the mobile Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival for their Google Re:Brief campaign.

Most recently, the agency was named Adweek’s Breaththrough Agency of the Year in 2019 and #3 AdAge’s Top Ten ‘A-List’ in 2020.

Leo fervently believes it’s the job of his agency to instill courage in their clients. And doing so requires deep listening and partnership.

Leo’s work has been recognized at every major international award show, including the One Show, D&AD, Cannes Lions and the Clios. He has twice been featured in Creativity's 50 Most Influential People, and his Tide “Talking Stain” commercial was nominated as one of the top 20 Super Bowl ads of all time. Earlier in his career, Leo won the Ansett Encouragement Award for Young Creative of the Year and was named the Best Young Creative in the United Kingdom by Campaign magazine. Leo is a sought-after thought leader and has been featured in publications including Forbes, Fast Company, Ad Age, Adweek and Campaign US.

Leo is most proud when he sees his teams achieve things they didn’t think possible and is most honored when he is able to share his experience with the industry’s emerging talent. Away from Johannes Leonardo, you can find Leo on a Sydney beach trying to convince his wife and two boys he’s in no need of a Mini Mal.

As president of Johannes Leonardo, Bryan Yasko is responsible for fostering overall growth, development and integration across the 200-person independent creative agency as it continues to deliver communications platforms that drive impact for some of the world’s most well-known companies.

Under his leadership, Johannes Leonardo was named #4 on Ad Age’s ‘Top Ten’ A-List in 2018 and again in 2020 as #3 for its consistent credibility in the industry for generating powerful brand ideas that transform organizations from the inside out. Last year, the agency was also named Adweek Magazine’s Breakthrough Agency of The Year as well as the most effective independent agency in North America by the Effie’s Index.

Bryan’s 20-year career encompasses a stellar record of delivering new business growth and inspiring award-winning, effective work for global brands. Before joining Johannes Leonardo in 2016, Bryan was the Global Business Director and a member of the executive management team at Droga5, where he led the agency’s largest accounts and new business wins including Google, Motorola, and Chase.

Bryan’s powerful vision within the agency has extended to the industry at large as a sought-after thought leader. Last year, he spoke on-stage at Ad Age’s Small Agency Conference and Mirren Live discussing topics surrounding building and scaling independent agencies, and how to make long-term bets on strategic talent. In 2017, Bryan was listed on the Adweek 50 as one of the media execs leading the charge toward transformation.

Bryan graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and two sons.

Julia Neumann is the Chief Creative Officer at Johannes Leonardo. In her role, Neumann is responsible for leading the agency’s creative and design department, while partnering with agency co-founders and creative chairmen, Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico, to cultivate a brave creative culture across the agency’s growing roster.

With over a decade of experience as an award-winning creative leader, Neumann has received top creative honors in steering some of the industry’s most notable work, including “Billie Jean King Your Shoes” for adidas, JetBlue “FlyBabies”, and MTN Dew’s “Major Melon” marking the first ad that truly gamified the Super Bowl viewing experience for Super Bowl LV. Other accolades include being named to Business Insider's annual list of Most Creative Women in Advertising in 2013, 2014 and 2016, and was named by AdAge on the Creatives You Should Know list in 2016.

Prior to joining JL in 2021, Neumann served as Executive Creative Director at TBWA/Chiat Day where she spent three years leading creative output for brands such as MTN Dew and adidas. Before joining TBWA in 2018, Neumann started her career as a Copywriter and served in roles at BBH New York and MullenLowe U.S. Neumann also spent time as a freelance Creative Director and Copywriter at Wild Things Roar working across various agencies such as Wieden + Kennedy NY, Anomaly NY, BBDO NY, Deutsch, RGA LA, McCann and JWT NY.

Outside of agency life, Neumann directed a documentary short called “Deporting Myself.” The film premiered at the Berkshire International Film Festival and was part of the official selection at the Marfa Film Festival 2021. It won best short documentary at the Coney Island Film Festival and was most recently featured at the NBC News “Meet the Press” Film Festival.

With a track record of helping brands navigate disruption and major inflection points, Steve brings over 25 years of experience to his role at Johannes Leonardo. This includes holding the role of Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy, McCann and Sapient. Steve was a key transformational leader during his time at McCann. Within his six year stint the agency doubled in size and was recognized as the most awarded Creative agency at Cannes Lions, and the most awarded effectiveness agency at the Effies. In addition to being a seasoned agency executive, Steve is is the Founder of Other Strategy, a creative provocation agency bringing outside perspectives to brands and agencies determined to change.Over the course of his career, Steve has led global strategy for brands like American Express, Miller Brewing, Volvo Global and Holiday Inn.

As Managing Director of Johannes Leonardo, Emily leads the agency’s robust client portfolio for some of the world’s most iconic businesses including, Volkswagen, adidas Originals, Kraft-Heinz and MassMutual. Additionally, as a member of the executive leadership team, Emily’s role encompasses bringing together strategic talent and resources that drive impact across agency development, client relationships and creative output.

Wilcox believes that creative brilliance can only be achieved when backed with strategic rigor and discipline. By championing upstream client management and encouraging integration across previously siloed teams, Wilcox has transformed JL into a powerful client solutions business, which has resulted in the agency’s accelerated growth over the past several years.

Emily empowers her teams to lead courageously and position themselves at the center of their client’s business objectives. As a result, her team have been creative stewards of some of the agency’s most impactful and awarded campaigns including adidas Originals “Original Is Never Finished” and MassMutual’s “Live Mutual” brand platform. Last year after the agency won Volkswagen, Emily created a new multiple agency integration model for the largest piece of business in JL’s history. Thus, it was the agency’s courageous work on Volkswagen that landed Johannes Leonardo the recognition of Adweek’s Breakthrough Agency of The Year in 2019.

Most recently the agency was named #3 on Ad Age’s ‘Top Ten’ A-List.

Throughout her 15+ years in advertising, Emily has created a legacy of transformation for the brands that she manages by challenging the way that heritaged companies connect with consumers. Prior to joining Johannes Leonardo, Emily was the SVP, Group Account Director at Saatchi & Saatchi where she led the General Mills account across a portfolio of brands including Cheerios, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Yoplait and Progresso. As a member of the NY leadership team, Emily was responsible for spearheading and maintaining agency integration across the Publicis Groupe network by inputting to the C-Suite on a monthly basis. Prior to Saatchi, Emily worked at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment on the Global Revlon and Almay businesses.

A strong supporter of the next generation of advertising talent, Emily is a sought after thought leader and mentor in the advertising industry at large. In addition to Emily’s commentary featured in key industry publications including Ad Age, Campaign US and Adweek, Emily has been a guest speaker at AAF AdCamp, and has been involved in multiple youth development programs throughout her career. Emily has also served as a judge for several industry award shows including the Jay Chiat awards and Ad Age’s A-LIst and Creativity awards.

Emily holds a B.A. in Public Communications from SUNY College at Buffalo, and an M.B.A. from The College of St. Rose. An avid runner and tennis player, Emily lives in Queens with her husband and daughter.

Nicole Holland’s approach to people and change management stems from 20 years of deep advertising and HR experience building and changing company cultures that have transformed organizations from the inside out.

As the Chief Talent Officer at Johannes Leonardo, Holland is responsible for overseeing the agency’s people management function while also developing holistic talent strategies that attract, retain, and grow a non-homogenous group of talent within the 200 person agency.

Holland’s passion for linking employee happiness to effective business strategies has landed her at some of the industry’s most well-known companies. Prior to Johannes Leonardo, Holland served as the Head of People and Culture at Fingerpaint Marketing, where she created an agency-wide career mapping plan, led and shaped the DEI strategy, initiated numerous employee programs, and served as an operating board member. Over the course of her career, Holland has also led Human Resources at leading advertising agencies Olgivy and Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness.

Ben Myers leads business development at Johannes Leonardo, building out the agency’s offerings for brands who value long lasting brand solutions for their modern marketing challenges.

Ben’s 16-year career to date has been spent working at some of the world’s best agencies and with clients across a variety of categories. In working with brands like GE, Bank of America, GameStop, HBO, The Patron Spirits Company, Blizzard Entertainment, Motorola, Red Lobster, and Pizza Hut among others.

Johannes Leonardo hired Ben in 2018 to head up business development, working with the management team to grow the agency with vision and purpose.

As Chief Financial Officer, Bill believes that creative agencies cannot be run via a spreadsheet and that creativity is only valuable if you are courageous. In his role, Bill sits at the intersection of business and creativity leading Johannes Leonardo’s finance discipline and ushering the agency through the new creative economy. Since joining the agency in May 2018, Bill has had the opportunity to guide the business through incredible, long-term growth that resulted in Johannes Leonardo’s most successful and historic year yet in 2019.

Bill joined JL from 72andSunny AMS, where he spent three years as Finance Director and member of the management team helping to grow the office in revenue, forecasting, and overall financial acumen. Prior to his time in Amsterdam, Bill worked at 72andSunny LA. Bill was employee number 60, and over the course of seven years helped to grow the agency. He helped set up offices in NY and AMS, as well as worked with leadership to develop financial models and best financial practices for the agency.

A thought leader within the industry, Bill has been requested to speak at various industry events and most recently, wrote an op-ed piece on the new rules of the creative economy and the evolving role of the CFO in Campaign US. Bill graduated from the State University of New York at Albany with a B.A. in Communications and holds a MBA from Pepperdine University with a concentration in finance. Bill lives in Manhattan with his wife and cat, and has a lifelong obsession with the New York Islanders.