Yes, I have dual citizenship, though my French fluency is modest and highly unlikely to impress anyone from Paris. I’m Jean-Pierre Bovie, and the accent is firmly Northern Californian, with only occasional French cameos.

Over the years, I’ve collected a small drawer full of titles. Junior this, Senior that, Associate something, Director of the other thing. If you shake the drawer, they all sound the same. What’s been constant is the job underneath: make ideas real, help teams do their best work, and occasionally prevent a meeting from becoming a hostage situation. I’ve led projects, departments, pitches, late-night sprints, and the occasional impromptu counseling hour for teams riding the creative rollercoaster, hands in the air whether they meant to be or not. Leadership, as it turns out, is less about org charts and more about making people feel safe enough to be brave and focused enough to land the plane.

I like places where good work beats loud work. Where the table is long, the elbows overlap, and credit moves around like bread. I’ve worked in tiny shops where everyone did everything and giant ones where calendars achieved sentience. Different scales, same goal: make something honest, make it sharp, make it matter. If a title helped, great. If not, you roll up your sleeves and become whatever the moment needs. Think creative Swiss Army knife, but with fewer corkscrews and more opinions about type.

Enough résumé energy. Here’s the human file.

Born in Berkeley, California. I do not own tie-dye. Former Boy Scout, which means I can start a fire in the rain and maintain a lifelong distrust of powdered milk and SPAM. The outdoors stuck. Dirt under my nails, horizon in front of me, brain rebooted. I’ve been a San Francisco Giants fan since childhood. I measure summers in innings and garlic fries, which is not FDA-approved but feels correct.

I have a very French name, a deep love of suspiciously fragrant cheese (even though I’m vegan), and a soft spot for people who take their craft seriously but themselves lightly. Making things with people you actually enjoy is, in my experience, the whole trick. Everything else is theater and decent lighting.

If you’re a visual person like me, scroll on to learn more.