In Conversation with Janet Kestin & Nancy Vonk

Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk are co-founders of the Swim leadership lab. In 2012 they left 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. Nancy and Janet were Co-Chief Creative Officers of Ogilvy Toronto for 13 years. Their teams delivered work like Dove Evolution and “Diamond Shreddies”, garnering One Show and D&AD pencils, the Grand Clio, the Creativity Awards Grand Prize and two Cannes Grand Prix. They have judged The One Show, D&AD, Cannes, Clio’s and many others. Nancy was the first female chair of the ADC in their 87-year history, in ‘09. While a One Club board member (’09 - ‘21), she helped develop programs that support a more diverse, sustainable industry. Janet was included in D&AD’s 2018 edition of 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 were advice columnists (Ask Jancy) for 10 years, and are the authors of Pick Me, a Wiley book based on the column that’s now 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 in 2017 by Inc. magazine. They’ve been recognized for their lifetime of achievements by the Marketing Hall of Legends in 2011, 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. The duo speaks at companies, schools and organizations who seek new ideas for advancing women's success, like UCLA, Google, and Lean In. In 2016, they helped design the creative leadership stream at Factry, the renowned Montreal-based school of creativity sciences.