New Colle McVoy CEO Is Future-Proofing "Perfectly Mid-Sized" Midwest Agency

As Colle McVoy celebrates 90 years in business, CEO Jessica Henrichs is focused on the future - specifically, how to build a creative company that’s modern, inclusive and fit for what’s coming next.

Jessica joined the Minneapolis agency as managing director at the end of 2019, before becoming president in October 2024. She stepped into the CEO role in January following the departure of Christine Fruechte, who led the business for 17 years.

The agency, now part of Stagwell, was founded in 1935 during The Depression; this year marks its 90th anniversary. It has always had deep roots in B2B and agriculture, but in the last five years, has significantly diversified its portfolio - or, as Jessica puts it, a ‘farm to table’ offering across CPG, retail, snacks, sauces, health and wellness, tourism, pet care, finance, and more.

“We deliberately set out to change the agency model,” says Jessica. “It was one of the reasons I came to Colle McVoy - seeing that potential to connect the dots across the ecosystem and connect our capabilities.” She had come from the larger holding companies, spending a lengthy stint at Digitas, part of Publicis Groupe. “Where they’re all trying to do that,” she says, “but they do it by pulling together different agencies. There was something unique about having this perfectly mid-sized Midwestern agency that already had all those capabilities under one roof.”

That under-one-roof model has become a key advantage. The agency has expanded into full-funnel media, from purpose to performance. It’s activated design as a “connective tissue that stitches across the ecosystem” and invested heavily in PR and earned creative. It has also become a certified B Corp.

All of this has factored into growth and the attraction of top-tier talent from across the industry; since Jessica joined the agency in 2020, Colle McVoy’s revenue has increased 48%, earnings are up 59% and its total headcount has jumped 25%. The agency has almost tripled BIPOC representation, from 10% to 28% of its workforce within the same timeframe. Campaigns with Frank's Red Hot, Gwoop, La-Z-Boy and Value City Furniture are notable results of these changes.

Much of this growth and transformation comes down to the agency’s culture, the strength of which was fiercely apparent to Jessica when she joined Colle McVoy five years ago. She jokes about the first time she saw a particular question in its employee survey that asks if people have a ‘best friend’ at work. “That always kind of made me chuckle when I saw it,” she says. But over 70% tend to answer yes to that question, which she thinks is testament to the culture that has been fostered both before and during her time there.

“We were able to change because people felt comfortable,” she adds. “They felt like they were in a safe place. They were willing to take risks and trust leadership that we were headed in the right direction. It was pretty remarkable how the culture was the foundation for the success, growth, and acceleration we've had - and it will continue to be.”

Jessica notes that while many agencies attempt to offer an end-to-end service, Colle McVoy’s is the real deal – something that has become its greatest strength. “Everyone is sort of trying to patch together this full-service solution,” says Jess. “And oftentimes, if you're too big, it can be clunky. Or if you're too disconnected because it's across multiple agencies, it's not real. We know there's something truly different and truly unique about having all of us under one roof and working together.”

And that doesn’t just happen overnight. Jessica reveals that the agency has worked tirelessly to build a “killer process” that enables all of its capabilities to come together and bring clients along for the ride. In a recent pitch win, the agency didn’t present any campaign ideas - instead focusing on how the brand could be brought to life once the platform was live: what it could make, say and do across channels, in unique and disruptive ways.

“It's incredible to see this in action,” says Jess, “because you would have to go to multiple different agencies and multiple different briefs to actually accomplish what we're able to do. We have media thinkers in the room as we're ideating and we're thinking about earned creative.

“It didn’t make sense for that client to buy TV, or even print or out of home,” she adds. “There were other ways they needed to go to market to really disrupt. And when we’re thinking about that holistically from the start, it really is an advantage - to our clients and to the kinds of work we can come up with that enable brands to look bigger than they are.”

Moving forward, it is the responsibility of Jessica and newly-appointed president Obele Brown-West to tend to, nurture and water that culture. “We've talked a lot about culture and what it means and how it's going to evolve,” she says. “The beauty of culture is it's not a static thing. We don't want it to stay the same. We've brought in a lot of new people and a lot of new brands. Our employees have the ability to continue to make and shape our culture.”

To help shape that vision, they’re leaning into the familiar term ‘people-first’ - but with their own spin: ‘potential-first’. “This is helpful in signaling where we’re going,” she says. “How we’re leaning into what people can become, how we’re surrounding them with the right training, the right technology, tools, and processes to set ourselves up for success.”

What’s more, they are constantly evaluating the impact of technology on their teams; how it can evolve and support the way their teams work.


“Our time-and-materials model of legacy advertising is on a collision course with generative AI. It just is.

“At a time when we are all working to become more efficient - which is a good thing - there’s certainly opportunity to continue improving,” says Jess. “We will have tools that reduce the time it takes to deliver an output. That alone shouldn’t decrease the value of that output. There’s still value.

“I feel optimistic that, actually, with AI, we will be able to reclaim some of that time. If we can really deploy AI to take on more of the menial tasks and allow our people time to create, that’s a huge opportunity.”

Intertwined in that is also a reevaluation of their revenue models; the way in which creativity is priced and paid for in 2025 has become a common theme of discussion for agency leaders, and Colle McVoy is working to build clarity. “We need to staff in ways that allow for that creative time and build in efficiency through AI,” says Jess. “It’s a combination of the tools we use and how we structure our revenue models to give people that time to think. That in and of itself certainly helps from a culture perspective - when you really show that you value creativity and people’s time. I think that’s very much connected.

“I love the conversation around the value of creativity,” she adds. “We know what's happening in the industry. We know the agencies that are giving creative away for free.” That, she says, is a dangerous trend. “Because it creates a bit of a race to the bottom on such an important conversation. And it sends the wrong message to the industry.

“So,” she adds, “I think there's a real opportunity for all of us to rethink how we shift our model to focus more on the value of the output, rather than the time and hours it takes to get there.”

Looking ahead, Jessica is focused on accelerating Colle McVoy’s advantages - through its model, its people, and a future-fit approach to operations. “And we’re going to do it in some radically new ways,” she says.

“It’s really exciting to see that this is a moment when an agency our size can have access to the tools and technology that bigger agencies had previously built bespoke and used as a competitive advantage.”

“I see us leaning into that. I see us putting out some of the best work in the history of the agency and continuing to show up as a connected 360 shop that can lean into earned creative - or whatever the need may be.”

At the end of the day, it’s about what the agency produces and delivers for its clients, but Jessica believes the remainder of this year will see the promise of what the team has been building come to fruition.

That vision, she says, will be accelerated through technology - but also through something far less glamorous.

“I know it’s not sexy, but a process that really enables all of this to show up in a unique and different way is key.”