My Biggest Lesson: Jackie Cornwall

Jackie is a VP, account director at H/L Oakland. She has proven herself to be a jane-of-all-trades with 30 years of expertise in retail, food service, consumer products, healthcare and telecommunications.

Driven by a desire to see her client's business grow, she has established herself as a person who underscores customer insights and develops successful marketing strategies. Jackie’s greatest love is team growth, as well as building genuine long-term relationships with clients, colleagues and everyone she meets. She founded the H/L Internship Program, and remains committed and passionate about expanding it each year. 

My dad’s approach to life was the strongest influence on both my professional and personal life. Throughout his life, despite confronting many challenges, his mantra was always onwards and upwards. From him, I learned how to rise above challenges and push myself to be better and stronger.

Both my dad and stepmom were stellar examples of people who took positive risks to advance their careers. My stepmom—a former concert pianist and educator—transitioned into a successful career as a management consultant. Following a distinguished career as an automotive executive, my dad used his business experience and became a corporate career counselling specialist—mentoring and assisting senior executives to advance their careers.  

From them, I learned the value of having a mentor, as well as the positive benefits of mentoring others—learning how to use your abilities in a variety of ways, and the generosity of helping others advance their own careers. I now realise the profound impact that has had on my life as I transitioned from my early career in public relations to my current role in advertising.

At H/L as an account director, I am proud of the long-term relationships with my McDonald’s clients, providing leadership and strategic counsel over the years. Along with this, I have always understood the value of getting involved in key agency initiatives and growth beyond my client responsibilities. 

At my prior agency, Hill Holliday, I fuelled my passion and developed an account management training program. Based on this experience, I created an internship program at H/L, which is curriculum-based and has grown considerably over the years. This summer we will welcome nine interns, students, and recent graduates from around the country into an immersive, hands-on learning experience at H/L.

During my teen years in high school, my mom encouraged me to get involved in life beyond academics. I joined the tennis team, took clarinet and guitar lessons, and joined the school yearbook staff. I started to learn about leadership when I became chief editor of my high school newspaper. It was hard work, and I stayed late after school, writing and editing articles, sourcing volunteers to cover sporting events, handling copy/layout, final production, and distribution to my high school.

I absolutely loved the challenge and contribution I was making. This experience solidified my decision to pursue a career in journalism. Early on, I had a passion for learning how brands create their place in the marketplace. In high school, I created collages of my favourite brands.

During my college years at The University of Wisconsin, I was a sales rep for the UW newspaper, The Badger Herald. In addition, while in the journalism school, I participated in the development of a marketing campaign for a client, Koss Headphones. As the account executive, I presented the marketing plan to the company’s executive leadership and thereafter, continued to network with the marketing director for several years. This experience provided clarity that account management was my calling.

In my senior year at UW, the Journalism School travelled to Chicago for advertising agency tours. Leo Burnett was my favourite agency, and it was with this agency that I met my first career mentor, who was the director of client services. I took the first step and asked for his business card, and he subsequently became a very positive mentor to me for many years.

He counselled me as I began my career with a public relations agency in Chicago. We continued to stay in touch as my career progressed and I moved to Los Angeles at BBDO and JWT and then to San Francisco. There were countless calls and letters for advice. He always made time to talk to me and of special significance, he helped me to think about how to add value to everything I do, how to stand out and differentiate myself. I am forever grateful to him.

This relationship with my mentor further reinforced what my dad had taught me about resilience—including his onwards and upwards lessons. It also challenged me to always think of how I could differentiate myself. I still remember that when I interviewed for an AE job on the Taco Bell account. I hand-delivered my thank-you note in an actual Taco Bell box that I custom wrapped. Although I didn’t get the job, I knew that my delivery made an impact.

From these experiences, I learned to think of myself as a brand. Who do I want to be? How do I differentiate myself? What am I most proud of? I learned the significance of networking and how it has led me to where I am today. It all started with what my dad taught me.

For me, a few areas rise to the top:

- Resilience and integrity—the significance of always building trust with colleagues and clients.

- Being a supportive teammate.

- Demonstrating leadership by example, helping people to be the best they can be.

A spirit of generosity and the joy and special satisfaction that comes from giving back and helping others succeed. Within H/L, this approach includes growing my team and assisting the next generation of young people to achieve success in their career, through the H/L Internship Program. This program allows me to share my passion—helping guide, mentor and provide inspiration to many young people as they navigate their career path.

I believe that this program is truly making a difference and providing rewards to both the agency and the participating interns. This is reflected in the overwhelmingly positive comments from current and prior interns who have told us directly what a positive impact this program has on them. An added ‘plus’ is that we continually receive referrals from prior interns.

Over the years, H/L has hired several interns at the conclusion of the program. Currently we have six former interns on staff at H/L. That is a testament to success.

I personally stay in touch with many of our former interns, who are successfully building their own careers. Their enthusiasm for the internship program is reflected in their participation on a speaking panel for our current summer class where they provide their perspective and offer advice to the new interns. For me, this is one of the (most) rewarding aspects of the internship program that makes all the time and effort worthwhile.