St. John

TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
Office Employees	51-100
Total US	51-100
Total Worldwide	51-100

BIOS

Dan St. John, Chairman, CEO

Dan began his career with McLeod-Severance Public Relations, then moved to Director of Public Relations for University Hospital and later served in the same role at St. Luke’s Hospital. He shifted to a career in advertising by joining The William Cook Agency, one of the premier agencies in the Southeast at the time, and over 11 years there managed some of the agency’s largest and highest profile accounts.

In 1984, Dan took on an even bigger challenge and started his own agency with William Robinson. The new venture, Robinson & St. John, grew to be an $18 million agency by 1993. That year, Dan bought his partner’s ownership in the agency and renamed it St. John & Partners. For the next 15 years, he helped lead the agency to 8x growth. The agency, now known as St. John continues to be guided by the values of character, courage and kindness.

Born and raised in Jacksonville, Dan graduated from Florida State University, where he earned a scholarship in baseball and a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Business with a major in Advertising and Public Relations. He is a former national 4A’s board member and is involved in a myriad of industry and community endeavors.

Jeff McCurry, Partner, President & COO

Jeff joined St. John and Partners in 1997 and has held various positions of increasing responsibility since then. He is equal parts account manager, consultant, planner and writer. focused on simple, strategic solutions.

In his role as president and chief operating officer, Jeff continues to shape the agency for a future driven by brand experience, adaptive content, and 24/7 on-demand connectivity.

His focus now is saliency, helping align the people, services and technology necessary to help clients be relevant and visible in an era defined by abundant choice and rapidly expanding/evolving sales and media channels.

In 2017, Jeff led the development of Nectar Studios, the agency’s content and production arm created to help clients maintain access to a wide variety of content delivered quickly and consistently.

Jeff has a 30+ year career working with clients in automotive, CPG, financial/fin-tech, food service, restaurant and retail categories.

Peter Herbst, VP Executive Creative Director

An art director and graduate of the Fashion Institute of New York, Peter offers 20+ years of experience on brands such as American Express, LG, Lufthansa, Green Mountain Coffee, Rooms To Go, United Airlines and Zaxby’s.

Peter’s design aesthetic is particularly valuable to clients as marketing continues to evolve to a design-driven initiative — visual communications, video channels and retail experiences.

Peter is a native of upstate New York and joined St. John from Y&R, New York. He offers a breadth of category experience and a style that his staff and our clients find refreshing.

In a business where creative directors are too often made famous by their mercurial nature, Peter is a guy people enjoy being around — easy-going, well read and well versed in a wide range of topics.

Peter is genuinely curious, and that shows in his work. When he is not creating new ideas with and for our clients, Peter enjoys traveling at high speed and long distance — his favorite activities are drag racing and leisure travel. Peter has visited five continents, 13 countries and 37 states. So far.

Austin K. Mahler, VP, Director of Client Services

Austin is responsible for both strategic and tactical leadership of account teams, serving as the senior partner for clients to ensure the quality of the relationship and work product.

Prior to joining St. John, Austin was VP, Client Services at Huge, Inc. in Brooklyn where she led a portfolio that included Anheuser Busch, Ralph Lauren, NBC News, Bain Capital and Vanguard. Previously she was the VP, Client Partnership & General Manager at the creative shop ROKKAN in their New York headquarters before moving to Los Angeles to open the agency’s West Coast presence. Austin also gained experience at R/GA, kbs and The Robin Shepherd Group on a variety of brands. Austin is passionate about digital, creative and developing amazing user experiences.

When she’s not overseeing large-scale projects, Austin can be found running (and chasing her toddlers), cooking, traveling and cheering on her alma mater, the Florida Gators.

Jennifer Hettler, Media Director

Jen offers 20 years of experience in media strategy and execution specializing in integrated planning and digital buying, measurement, and data-driven strategy.

Over the past 12 years, she’s led development of media strategy for St. John clients including Ford, Zaxby’s, Florida Lottery, and Florida Prepaid College Board. In fact, she is one of the very few leaders at the agency to have literally worked on the behalf of every client since she arrived a dozen year ago.

Prior to joining the agency, Jen worked with restaurant brands, home builders, financial institutions, and a significant number of travel destination and tourism clients including Walt Disney World, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, Honduras, Tate Britain, Hilton Caribbean, Panama City Beach CVB, and the Mexico Tourism Board.

A western New York native, Jen moved to Florida after graduating from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

When not negotiating with reps or poring over data, you'll find her exploring the world with her husband and daughter, managing her growing collection of house plants, or out on the water surfing or wakeskating - she's a former competitor in the professional Wakeskate Tour.