Jan Johnson has been in advertising longer than most people have had email addresses. After a 40-year journey from McKinney’s VP ranks to building Avenir Bold into a 19-year powerhouse, she’s developed what you might call discerning taste—the kind that makes creative teams simultaneously nervous and grateful.
Jan’s educational trajectory reads like someone who couldn’t pick a lane: English literature, journalism, then graphic design at SVA. Turns out she was collecting superpowers. Today, she’s equally comfortable dissecting campaign strategy, debating AI’s creative potential, or diving into the tactical weeds that make most CEOs glaze over.
She works the kind of hours that would make a resident physician wince—early mornings bleeding into late nights—but somehow never misses a family dinner or forgets a neighbor’s birthday. Her secret? An almost pathological love of gift wrapping that borders on performance art, balanced by an equally intense disdain of grocery stores.
The McKinney gene runs strong: Jan still physically cringes when creative work falls short. Fortunately, after nearly two decades of building Avenir Bold’s reputation, that’s become a rare occurrence. She’s the kind of leader who can spot a strategic blind spot from across the conference room while simultaneously wondering if that font choice is making her eye twitch.