John Condon

Founder
Chief Creative Officer

Prior to founding The Distillery Project, John served as Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett and oversaw the largest creative department in America. During his tenure, John led Burnett to higher standings in the creative rankings than ever before. While simultaneously winning more awards for advertising effectiveness than any other agency. Since founding The Distillery Project in 2012, this particular brand of creativity has earned Small Agency of the Year recognition from AdAge in 2012, 2014 and 2017. In other words, our work works.

Before joining The Distillery Project, Ben served as Chief Marketing Officer for Ogilvy & Mather. He was also the Chief Strategy Officer at Leo Burnett. And at one time, at Wieden + Kennedy, he ran the global account of a teeny little gym shoe company called Nike. His insightful understanding of both human behavior and the business of marketing has led to helping create inspiring conversations for a range of clients as wide as Miller High Life, Kimberly-Clark, Prudential, United Airlines, GM, Nike, P&G, Amazon, American Family Insurance, Medtronic and Sports Illustrated.

Ben Kline

Founding Partner
Chief Strategy Officer

Per Jacobson

Founding Partner
Creative Director

Long ago, Per went all the way to Norway; a country full of people named Per to get his start in this industry. Once Per learned the whole point of advertising was to stand out, he returned to America and joined Ogilvy & Mather in New York. His work on IBM’s “Blue Letterbox” campaign received numerous accolades, including Adweek’s Campaign of the Year. In 1998, Per joined Leo Burnett. He soon partnered with John and together they worked across the agency portfolio on everything from selling beer to saving orphans.

Kim joined The Distillery Project from Leo Burnett, where she started her career as a Client Service Associate. Kim quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Senior Vice President, Director of Operations where she managed the day to day functioning of the Kellogg’s account across the US. There are numerous reports that she is one of the nicest human beings on the planet.

Kim Tanner

Partner
Head of Operations

Nik Traxler

Partner
Head of Production

Nik is also a Leo Burnett alumni, but his natural curiosity led him on a tour of duty at companies and agencies of all shapes and sizes, like Google Creative Lab, Wieden+Kennedy, Sid Lee, Johannes Leonardo, Y&R NY and The Martin Agency. Along the way, Nik’s had the opportunity to work with brands like Nike, ESPN, Discover Card, Walmark, LG and Heineken. His experience in both traditional and interactive production provides our clients with a truly integrated perspective on how to bring work to life and has even earned him a nomination for agency producer of the year by Boards Magazine.

leadership team
leadership team
distillers

Jane Condon

Digital and Social Writer

Brenda Cortes

Producer

Dan Goubert

Copywriter

Annie Gray

Account Director

Jim Jordan

Cinematographer

Annabelle Kline

Associate Producer

Caroline Kline

Strategist

Chris Kuhatschek

Associate Creative Director

Tammy Myers

Associate Creative Director

Kristi Neitzel

Creative Director

Eli Otting

Strategist

Chris Pollock

Creative Director

Jake Rivard

Copywriter

Will Robertson

Copywriter

Jessie Sturgeon

Art Director

Michelle Sturgis

Account Director

Alex Tuzzolino

Producer

Gunnar Whitley

Editor