About Jay

Experience without the theater.

I connect a brand promise to the decisions, systems, and people who must deliver it.

Your guide

Experience without the theater.

Twenty years solving marketing and business problems at Mastercard, IBM, in higher education, and with clients.

I learned in large organizations how easily a sound idea gets lost between teams, incentives, and decisions. In independent work, I can sit closer to the people doing the work and say plainly what I see.

I listen before I challenge. You lead. We test the problem together, make the decision visible, and work beside each other as the answer takes hold.

Read my story at the Marketing Accountability Council

20+Years across marketing, strategy, and education

8Years at Mastercard

100+Published articles connecting accountability to business

Why this work exists

I started by helping people tell a clearer story. Then I saw the systems behind it.

01 · The start

From corporate marketing to independent work

After nearly twenty years inside large organizations, I started my own coaching and consulting practice. I wanted to sit closer to the people facing the problem and help them connect a brand promise to the decisions and behavior behind it.

02 · The shift

Marketing accountability

Again and again, I saw a gap between what organizations said and how they operated. I founded the Marketing Accountability Council to make that gap discussable in public, with evidence, candor, and room for people to disagree.

03 · The culture

Truth, systems, people

My work is built around candor, curiosity, and collaboration. We listen across roles, test assumptions, name the decision and its owner, and follow through. I will challenge an idea directly and treat the people carrying it with respect.

My mission

Help leaders close the gap between what they promise and what people actually experience. That means telling the truth about the problem, changing the system that produces it, and giving people more clarity and agency on the other side.

Candor

Say what I see, including when the current plan is not working.

Curiosity

Ask what we might be missing and test the easy explanation.

Collaboration

Bring the people who know the work into the decision and share ownership of what follows.

Integrity

Draw a line when a claim, incentive, or shortcut asks us to mislead people.

These principles run through why I founded MAC, my writing on silence and candor, and the boundaries I set in imperfect systems.

Read the longer story in my own words

Awards & recognition

Selected recognition

Brand Innovators named me to its 2016 Northeast 40 Under 40. Mastercard team and partner campaigns received industry honors during my time there.

View campaign honors and credits

2016 · Grand Prix — The Internationalist’s Awards for Innovative Digital Solutions, Rugby World Cup campaign.
2017 · Gold Midas — 44 Days of Crazy, Mastercard, credit card category.
2016 · Bronze Sports Clio — Hats Off to Tom, Partnerships & Sponsorships.
2016 · Gold Portfolio Award — Financial Communications Society, Consumer Retail/Social Media, Hats Off to Tom.
2016 · Shortlist — European Sponsorship Association Excellence Awards, Best Use of Social Media, Mastercard at The 145th Open, #TheHoleStory.

Campaign honors reflect work by Mastercard teams and partners. The ESA entry was a shortlist, not an award win. See my LinkedIn honors list ↗

Education & credentials