With over three decades in the advertising industry, John Underwood has been around the block a few times, from navigating the corridors of American Express Public Affairs to leading account teams at iconic agencies like Y&R, Wunderman Cato Johnson, Creatability and, of course, Tinsley Advertising. His roster of past clients reads like a Who’s Who of What’s What, featuring everything from The Florida Keys & Key West to Cunard Line, Seabourn Cruise Line, Karisma Gourmet Inclusive Resorts, Ponte Vedra Beach Resorts, Eau Palm Beach, Alamo Rent A Car, MetLife, Dell Computers, AT&T, and even Kenny Rogers Roasters.

Now, as CEO of Tinsley, John brings his expertise and vision to every project, ensuring that each client benefits from his extensive industry knowledge.

When not busy shaping brands, John serves his community, with memberships on the Orange Bowl Committee and raising funds for causes close to his heart, like Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. He’s a third-generation Miami native, and has been married for 27 years, with two sons and a couple of marathon medals from New York and San Diego hanging proudly on his wall.

John’s success in marathons is no surprise, as his entire life has been built for the long run, garnering an enviable reputation for long-lasting relationships with all of his clients. John’s personal and professional journeys reflect his dedication to family, community, and a good story — all served with a side of Miami sunshine.

Artist. Musician. World traveler. Environmentalist. Organic farmer. Dorn Martell has worn many hats in his lifetime, and now he’s adding one more: Advertising Agency Owner. After 25 years as Creative Director at Tinsley, including one of the most unimaginable years ever in 2020, Dorn has taken a seat at the helm.

Dorn’s Agency saga began in Detroit at Ross Roy and Campbell Ewald, where he worked on Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat of America” campaign, which led to a stop in LA at Lintas: Campbell Ewald for work on Princess Cruises, Rockwell International and Bridgestone Tires.

After his Hollywood chapter, Dorn headed to Chicago, for tours at Bayer Bess Vanderwarker and DMB&B, working on national campaigns for Gatorade, Quaker Cereals, Kemper Insurance, Hyatt, Budweiser and Amoco. In his downtime, he wrote and directed an independent film called “Zug” (available on the video: “Best of Chicago Film Festival”).

And then came Tinsley, where he’s been creating timeless and award-winning work since 1995 for The Florida Keys & Key West, Cunard Line, The Yachts of Seabourn, The Boca Raton Resort & Club, City Furniture, and, most recently, Ponte Vedra Beach Resorts.

One part Amélie, one part Heidi, French-born, Swiss-raised Vanessa Burguière brings a wonderfully quirky, delightfully European sensibility to Tinsley Advertising. Before joining us, Vanessa was an Art Director at Leo Burnett USA in Chicago, Illinois, where she worked on accounts such as Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and McDonald’s. Before that, she completed an art direction program at the Miami Ad School. Vanessa received a BA in fine art from LLN in Belgium.

A veteran of the Madison Avenue rat race, Eric escaped from New York and showed up on our doorstep in 1998 and he’s been here ever since. (Well, except for an extraordinarily brief stop at “the-Agency-which-must-not-be-named.”) But Eric left us on good terms so the only thing we could do was say “we told you so” and welcome him back home again. Eric has spent more than 20 years buying and developing media plans for The Florida Keys, and has worked on a spectrum of other accounts including toy giants Hasbro, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Media reps know that when they sit down to negotiate with Eric, he’s not playing games. Although he’s a seasoned veteran of the traditional media world, he’s also an expert in new and emerging media, too.

It’s impossible to paint Jaclyn with too broad a brush. Although she’s relatively new to Tinsley, (note: anyone here for less than a decade is new to Tinsley), her career in advertising started years ago at Tambourine, Kaseya and most recently, Zimmerman – where she worked on accounts including McDonalds, Kay Jewelers and JetBlue Vacations. Her life experience outside the industry left her well prepared for whatever she’d encounter on the inside: she was a high school art teacher – with a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Wheaton College and a master’s in Marketing from FIU.

Though Jackie is an avid road cyclist, she doesn’t like to stay in one lane for too long. Which explains why she’s also a sailor. And a mixologist. And an angler. And a figure skater. And a beach volleyball player. And a motorcyclist. The fact is, anything you can do, she’s probably already done. And just to punctuate it, if you’re forty, Jaclyn’s Fortier.

Regardless, we’re happy to have her on the team at Tinsley, overseeing day-to-day operations on a variety of accounts.

Disney fanatic? Check. Tommy Bahama admirer? Sure. Ukulele player? Of course. If there was ever a poster child for not judging a book by its cover, Steven Calles would most definitely qualify as a candidate. Because on the surface, you might dismiss him as just another guy from the creative department. But look a little deeper. Steven comes to Tinsley with degrees in Marketing and Advertising Management from the University of Miami. He developed the digital advertising program for the Business Improvement District of Coral Gables. He assisted with reopening plans after COVID for the Perez Art Museum Miami. And he implemented new branding efforts for Kay Jewelers’ 2022 Times Square New Year’s Countdown takeover. Today, Tinsley’s Tommy Bahama-clad Ukulele strummer plays an instrumental part in day-to-day management of The Florida Keys & Key West. And even if his shirts are sometimes loud, he blends in perfectly.

The English language contains somewhere between 170,000 and 200,000 words. After more than 25 years writing award- winning copy at Tinsley, Rick still hasn’t used all of them yet, but just in case, he’s learned how to say “A monkey stole my pants” in 9 languages, including French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese and either Albanian or Serbian…we forget.

Part of the Tinsley recruiting class of 1995, Rick has created award-winning ads for The Florida Keys, City Furniture, Miami Children’s Hospital, Karisma Resorts, Nova Southeastern University and a host of others. And his writing could touch your heart as easily as make you laugh out loud.

In his spare time, Rick has become an internationally renowned Bad Artist, creating badly drawn animals and selling them on the open market. He’s huge in British college towns. We think it’s all the drinking.

Whoever coined the phrase be careful of the quiet ones could easily have been referring to Tinsley Art Director Joshua Guilfoyle. Because while Joshua isn’t the most vociferous member of Tinsley’s creative department, his work takes no prisoners. Truth is, Joshua is the go-to guy on many of Tinsley’s most challenging assignments. But like everyone, Joshua finds his own opportunities to express himself, whether he’s pulling tricks on his skateboard, blazing new trails on his Suzuki quad, rattling the stands at Miami Hurricanes, Heat or Dolphins games, or along the front stretch at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

We could talk about how Lisset joined Tinsley in 2023, stepping into the well-worn shoes of our legendary, long-term traffic director who went off to enjoy her retirement after 42 years here. And we could talk about how Lisset brings extensive experience in advertising, media, broadcast and ad-tech to the agency, along with almost a decade of traffic management and supervisory experience.

We could talk about how she moved here from Venezuela to attend The University of Florida, where she earned a B.S. in Advertising, followed by an M.B.A. from NSU. We could talk about her love of dogs, travel, fine food and Argentine Malbec, or the fact that she became a proud U.S. citizen in May of 2023.

We could talk about all of that, but it would be burying the lead.

Because Lisset holds the distinction of being the first person to be bitten by a crocodile on U.S. soil. Crikey! And it’s even more ironic because, of course, she’s a diehard Gator.

Y’know the old saying: “If you let something go and it comes back…then it was meant to be”? Well, that’s sort of how we feel about Lauren. She came to Tinsley as a summer intern while she was still a Design student at Syracuse University. Lauren made quite an impression on us during that brief summer fling, helping to develop an award-winning campaign for The Florida Keys. Then, all too soon, she was gone.

Lucky for us, upon graduation, she found her way back home to Miami, and to Tinsley, and she’s been here ever since.

We’ve watched Lauren grow from an enthusiastic kid to a truly accomplished Art Director, with innate leadership skills, impeccable taste and a generous spirit. We’ve even watched her go from the graduation procession to a walk down the aisle to pushing strollers with each of her 3 kids. And she’s never missed a step.