Jen is a formidable communicator, driven by her values and her passion for her team. She is the sole founder and managing director of Think HQ and oversees all projects from inception through to evaluation. Jen is currently the B&T Executive Leader, PRIA Industry Leader of the Year an CommsCon PR Leader of the Year.
She has over 20 years experience in managing national, state and local communications campaigns. In addition to her communications experience, she is a politics and policy nerd, and understands the very important intersect between social policy and communications in any effective behaviour change campaign. She is also a businesswoman who thrives on growing the Think HQ business.
Jen launched her business in 2010 from the kitchen table. Using no external equity, she has worked with an ever growing team of talented and passionate people to build the business one project at a time. She has been unrelenting in solely committing the business to only working on projects that lead to positive social impact. She was told countless times by many people that the business model would never work, and fortunately they were all wrong! It is possible to do good and run a robust, profitable business.
In 2019, Jen acquired Cultureverse, a multicultural communications agency, helping organisations reach and influence diverse audience groups across Australia. That acquisition, and the appointment of the Head, First Nations Engagement, means that the vision of becoming a creative powerhouse underpinned by inclusion, is slowly and finally being recognised.
Jen holds a 1st class Honours Degree in Politics from Monash and a Graduate Diploma in Business (Entrepreneurialism) from Swinburne. In 2013, she was the recipient of a scholarship to study an Executive Certificate in Business at Berkeley, California.
The founding principles of Think HQ, and our collective North Star as an organisation, is simple: “positive outcomes for people, places and planet.” We use an array of creative approaches to deliver on these aims for our clients, but every project has at its core one crucial element: listening.
In a piece originally published on Mumbrella, founder and MD of Think HQ Jen Sharpe calls on the industry to consider the impact the great creative we all aspire to is having on the world.
What will we learn from the COVID pandemic?
At present, the answer appears to be “not now please”. It seems the collective trauma is so significant that we’d all rather move on with our lives and process things in their own time.
That doesn’t surprise me. I feel exactly the same way. By the end of 2020, I was mentally and emotionally cooked.
We saw it in the Federal Election. Despite rising numbers of cases and hospital admissions, no candidate on any side of the political divide seemed to mention the pandemic. Australians just want to move on.