Jerry Brown

Jerry is responsible for directing the agency’s growth, ensuring its financial stability, and protecting its culture. Aside from his business development duties as CEO, Jerry’s professional passions have always been sales and marketing. Whether participating in client strategy meetings, serving as a marketing consultant for a few of the firm’s premier clients, or mentoring young marketers and sales professionals, more of Jerry’s time is spent working “on” business than “in” it.  

In 1989, Jerry founded the company that would become BusinessVoice. He added website marketing to our list of services in 2004. That team evolved into the digital strategy agency TouchStone Digital in 2020. He created SensoryMax in 2012. By 2015, he had introduced MadAve Marketing Management and joined with Terry Lesniewicz to start design2influence.

Jerry also created The MadAveCollective, an agency that provides branding, advertising and design services for budget-strapped non-profits while, at the same time, helping develop the careers of aspiring creative professionals.

Together, the six agencies make up MadAveGroup.

Jerry has served other organizations as well. He's a founding member of the Customer Experience Marketing Alliance, a global partnership of premier point-of-contact marketing agencies. He was a pioneering member of the Experience Marketing Association and has served as its Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Marketing Chair. Jerry has also worked with the Toledo Area Business Network, the Chief Executive Boards, and the Young Entrepreneur Society, and served as a trustee for the Huntington Community Center.

He also served as President of the Toledo Chapter of The American Advertising Federation. He was a recipient of AAF-Toledo’s President’s Award, and in 2012, received the organization’s highest honor, The Silver Medal Award, for lifetime contributions to the advertising industry. In 2016, Jerry was inducted into the Entrepreneurial & Business Excellence (EBE) Hall of Fame.

In demand as a speaker and trainer, Jerry has addressed dozens of conferences, seminars and symposiums, and conducted workshops and training sessions for companies throughout the country. His areas of expertise include marketing; communication; tactical, strategic, and consultative selling; sales management; and business development.

Jerry’s skill at gaining authentic dialog and his rigid adherence to “truth over harmony” are appreciated by his colleagues and clients, many of whom have been with him for more than a quarter century.

Outside of work, Jerry enjoys participating in sports, travelling and outdoor adventure with his wife, motorcycling, and playing music with his brothers, sons and friends.