Stephen Gaither: President/CEO
As the agency’s founder, Steve’s unique formula of business and creative solutions, combined with interpersonal client relations, provides winning results for client projects and campaigns. With more than 15 years of design, marketing and management experience, Steve brings direct accountability and results to each project. An early innovator in the creative field of promotion and strategic marketing, he has helped organizations grow for more than 10 years and brings strategic thinking and tactical execution to every project.
Prior to founding JB Chicago, Steve served as an art director at GMR Marketing and helped build the agency’s creative department in Chicago. He was also a senior designer for Jager Di Paolo Kemp, Scott Ross Limited and MDI Grafx and has worked with a variety of clients ranging from Kraft Foods to Burton Snowboards. Steve received a B.S. from Ball State University’s acclaimed College of Architecture & Planning. He sat on the board for Y-ME and Looking Glass Theater and has contributed services to Chicago’s Gateway Green.
Dean Pedersen: Chief Marketing Officer, Director of Brand Strategy
Dean has spent 18 years in the advertising business, mostly with Leo Burnett USA in Chicago. He led strategic development, client partnership management and digital strategy for brands like General Motors, Gateway, EarthLink, VeriSign and Cars.com. Dean also spent three years at Leo Burnett USA leading digital strategy for a number of Philip Morris USA brands like Marlboro and Parliament. He has a proven track record for successfully building and selling in forward-thinking marketing programs that help brands realize incremental revenue.
More recently, Dean served as Director of Client Partnership and eventually as Senior Partner and Chief Operating Officer of a boutique branding agency in Chicago. He helped increase billings by 200%+ in just 18 months. One of Dean’s roles as COO was to figure out how to leverage social media to benefit the agency and its clients. It was in this role that Dean realized the opportunity to launch Dialog 2.0 – a company dedicated to helping brands like Comcast and Emmis Communications navigate the evolving social media space to increase brand engagement and create social commerce.
Dean led the strategic vision, operations and new business development for Dialog 2.0 for almost three years before teaming up with JB Chicago. Now as CMO and Director of Brand Strategy at JB Chicago, Dean is
Christina Calderon: Creative Director
Christina has over 13 years of graphic design experience and was JB Chicago’s first hire. Currently, as creative director, Christina leads the art department from concept through production for clients like Axe, Wrigley’s, Visa and Orbitz. Her expertise in branding, print, typography, Web design and experiential marketing helps her guide clients in communicating their vision. She is not afraid to push boundaries and set new standards, and has repeatedly established innovative trends. Christina is an expert in developing exactly what a client needs by asking the right questions and understanding their goals. She can easily extend a company’s brand and image consistently across all mediums.
From an early age, Christina knew that she had a passion for design. She attended DePaul University, where she received a B.A. in Graphic Design. Then, she began her career in the agency realm by working with clients that included Cook County Government, where she created the branding of museums and recycling programs as well as political promotion.
Prior to JB Chicago, Christina started her own freelance company, working in the entertainment, retail, health and beauty industries. With her versatile and conceptual thinking, Christina always delivers creative solutions and professional results.
Jonathan Leake: COO
Jonathan has more than 10 years of Internet marketing experience and oversees the day-to-day business operations and finances at JB Chicago. His approach to technology and business process provides innovative solutions in the expanding field of online marketing.
