2011 INDUCTEE

OGILVY & MATHER

Janet Kestin is co-founder of the Swim leadership lab. In 2012 she and partner Nancy
Vonk were inspired to leave their long-time CCO roles with ambition to close the huge
leadership skills gap for creative people. Today Swim supports the success of leaders
at top agencies and creative companies around the world.

Janet was Co-Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Toronto with Nancy for 13 years. Their
teams delivered work like Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and “Diamond Shreddies”,
garnering One Show and D&AD pencils, the Grand Clio, the Creativity Awards Grand
Prize and two Cannes Grand Prix. Janet has judged The One Show, D&AD, Cannes
Lions, and many others. She was the foreman of D&AD’s “Writing for Advertising” jury in
2014 and is among the chosen few featured in the 2018 edition of D&AD’s The Copy
Book: How Some of the Best Advertising Writers in the World Write Their Advertising.

In 2012 Nancy and Janet were on Advertising Age Magazine’s “100 Most Influential
Women in Advertising” list, and they were among Creativity magazine’s “Top 50 Most
Creative People” of 2008. They are the authors of Pick Me, a staple in advertising schools
from Texas to Turkey. Their 2014 HarperCollins book, Darling, You Can’t Do Both (And
Other Noise to Ignore on Your Way Up) was named a top book on leadership by Inc.
magazine. They have been inducted into the AMA Hall of Legends and are recipients of
other recognition for their lifetime of achievements including the Les Usherwood Award
(ADCC) In 2021, the Hall of Marketing Gold and The One Club for Creativity Hall of Fame
in 2022. Women of Influence and AWNY honored them with women of the year awards in 2007.

Janet speaks at companies, schools and organizations who seek new ideas for
advancing women’s success, like UCLA, Google, and Lean In. In 2016, Janet helped
design the creative leadership stream at Factry, the school of creativity sciences
founded by Sid Lee leaders.