Champions Design is expanding its leadership team with the appointment of Jessie McGuire as Strategy Director. McGuire joins the agency to help grow its strategic practice, deepen client partnerships, and extend the reach and impact of client work.

Winner of ​the 2026 National Design Award in Communication Design, McGuire’s career has taken her from client-side to consulting-side and from Fortune 500 to founders. 

McGuire worked in consumer packaged goods at Kimberly-Clark. She grew Thought Matter from an emerging company to a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award Winner. She graduated from and mentors in the SVA Masters in Branding Program, her writing has appeared in Design Observer, Fast Company, and PRINT, and she teaches The Entrepreneurship Mindset at Pratt Institute.

With a deep understanding of the cultural impact of branding, McGuire shares Champions’ point of view that the design industry holds the power to create real change.

For McGuire, it’s a return to a conversation that began more than a decade ago. McGuire first met with Champions founders Jennifer Kinon and Bobby C. Martin Jr. in 2016 and they’ve sought opportunities to work together ever since. 

I am thrilled to be joining Champions. The consistency of their portfolio is unmatched. There’s a relentless commitment to excellence. They build great teams. The expectation is that everyone brings their best thinking and pushes the work as far as it can go, then even farther. That’s what drew me to Champions.

Jessie McGuire

McGuire’s appointment marks the first time Champions has brought in an external senior leader. She will expand the strategy practice and operations capabilities while Creative Director Mike McCaughley leads the design team.

For Kinon, McGuire’s arrival comes at an important moment for the studio.  Now with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Dallas, Champions will be announcing several ambitious new projects in the coming months.  

Jessie has received her laurels and – still – she refuses to rest. She is fearless in the face of ambiguity and genuinely curious about seemingly everything. Most people fold before they get to the other side of a problem. She will push a big idea through from doubt to inevitability, then publish an article on how you can do it too.

Jennifer Kinon

McGuire recently spoke at the 2026 Brand New Conference in Nashville. In the coming weeks, she will be speak on “Branding as Power: Trust, Participation, and Change” at Adobe Max in Miami and DesignX in Toronto. 

Jessie will push a big idea through from doubt to inevitability, then publish an article on how you can do it too.