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Josh McCall Chairman & CEO Jack Morton Worldwide
		Education: BA in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania; executive education at Dartmouth, University of North Carolina and the Harvard Business School Books Reading: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, about John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln Favorite Quote: A quote from Jack Morton (the person): “If you can’t sing, hum.”		Inspirational Figures: Nelson Mandela Relationship Status: Happily married and father of three teenage daughters I dare to ask age ... 49

Short bio of career path
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at a time when unemployment was even higher than it is now, ready to go into advertising.  While seeking employment on Madison Avenue, I took a job selling cable TV door-to-door (ouch, that dates me) because a friend at Ogilvy & Mather told me that sales was good training for advertising. That landed me on the doorstep of Bill Morton, CEO of what was then The Jack Morton Company, who immediately hired me as an account manager. It didn’t take long for me to realize how glad I was to be in the business of creating experiences rather than ads. From the start I knew I wanted the job I have now. So I am a big believer in passion, ambition and being open to opportunities you might not see coming.

Define your leadership style and the feel of the agency
I foster an atmosphere where our people can thrive and do what they do best for our clients. That takes creativity and entrepreneurialism, because we’re constantly evolving, but also strong management to make sure the business is rock-solid. Our culture is 100% distinctively Jack. We’re a big agency with a small agency sensibility: passionate and creative, connected and collaborative internally, competitive externally.

Toughest challenge overcome in your career?
The period after 9/11 was tough. Given what was happening in our industry, the economy and the global environment, my leadership challenge was to maintain our vision and our strong culture even as our business adjusted to the “new normal.” It was tough, but we came out of it stronger, with a more global and even more collaborative culture.

What was your defining moment at Jack?
There are so many proud moments. An especially memorable one is being in the crowd of 80,000 people watching the opening ceremonies we created for the Olympic Games in Athens—I could literally feel the crowd reacting to the experience our team had created.

Favorite assignment completed to date?
It’s by definition a task that’s ongoing—and that is fostering the most collaborative and creatively connected experiential agency in the world.

Your vision of where we will all be in 10 years (non-apocalyptic)
I think experiential is going to become the preferred strategy for marrying “online networking” and “live networking”—and I am confident that the merging of live and digital will finally break down the assumption that advertising is at the center, and move us from just talking about the new realities of the marketing landscape to actually doing something about it. And of course, I think that any agency that can’t measure how it has impacted the client’s business is going to find itself out of business.

Best describe Jack Morton
We are a global experiential marketing agency. We help our clients create brand experiences—and thereby help them build experience brands.

Why do clients choose Jack and how have you been able to maintain such long relationships?
Creativity, proof of our impact and value for their business, the ability to create any kind of experience in any medium anywhere on the planet, and a reputation for always pulling it off.

Advice for those entering into the space from college?
Be media neutral: experiential isn’t just “live,” it’s live plus digital plus 3D experience design. The ability to think holistically across experiential media, and to generate terrific ideas that span media, are what’s going to fuel your career and your success. And of course, always follow your passion—do what you love and it won’t feel like work.

Advice to the smaller agency owners in this tough economic climate?
Understand what sets you apart and “why they buy” your agency. If you’re selling on the basis of price, be really competitive, but if you’re selling on the basis of better creative, stay loyal to that point of difference. Jack Morton—the man—started our company from his kitchen table, so you never know where your smaller agency will end up.