Call me James or JP, but never Jim or Jimmy. Jimbo only on VERY special and specific occasions — like that time I got picked out of the audience at Dolly Parton’s Stampede to throw Rocky Mountain Horseshoes.

I’m the Executive Creative Director at Rate in Chicago, where I lead a large in-house creative team working across 34 verticals and businesses.

I started as a filmmaker. My first documentary, No Cameras Allowed, was licensed to MTV when I was 24. For the last decade, I’ve created content and campaigns for brands like Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria and Marriott International. Along the way, my teams earned more than 20 HSMAI Adrian Awards, including Gold for Four Seasons and The Ritz Carlton. I also grew a creative department from 7 to 30 people across two continents and increased creative revenue by more than 250%.

What keeps me going: building teams people want to be on, a culture where the best idea wins, and tackling the hard problems nobody else wants.