The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
by Becky Smith, The Quill
Jesse Jones is a 1999 graduate of La Harpe High School (Go Eagles) and is the son of Jay and Cathy Jones of La Harpe.
Jesse's siblings are older brother, Jackson Jones of Chicago and younger brother, Jensen Jones of St. Louis, MO.
Jesse currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.
After high school, Jesse attended Northwest Missouri State University where he stood on the sidelines of a lot of football games and graduated in 2003 with a B.S. in Marketing.
While in college, Jesse met his wife, Renae, from nearby Allendale, Missouri (population 53). Renae was a hurdler on the track team at NWMSU. Renae won 12 gold medals, 1 silver, and 1 bronze at the Missouri State Track meet making her the winningest Track & Field athlete in Missouri State history.
After graduating college, Jesse and Renae moved to Chicago where they lived in the River North neighborhood.
Jesse worked at a few different advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson and DDB Chicago. He made TV commercials for State Farm and McDonald's. Then after 7 years of cold Chicago winters, Renae and Jesse packed up and headed west to sunny Boulder, Colorado.
For the past 8 years in Boulder, CO, Jesse has worked as a VP/Group Director at an advertising and marketing firm called CP+B with offices in Boulder, LA, Copenhagen, London, Brazil, and Beijing.
Jesse works on TV commercials, product consulting, and digital services for companies like Domino's, Infiniti, American Airlines, and Microsoft.
Some of his work highlights include working on 3 Super Bowl commercials, being on the team that made the mobile apps for Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, a short film about McDonald's French fries, and spending a year traveling the country filming concerts.
More recently, Jesse has been working with automotive brands to create virtual reality (VR) experiences to show off their future car models, as well as done some consulting with local Denver-based tech startup companies.
Jesse says he has been fortunate enough to do a lot of international travel for both work and family trips. He enjoys visiting and learning about new places. Northern Italy, Amsterdam, Reykjavik, London, Alaska, and Paris have been some of his favorite recent trips. Three years ago, Jesse went to Africa for the first time. "It was pretty incredible to be somewhere so far away and different than anything he had ever experienced growing up in rural Illinois."
Jesse and his wife, Renae, have been married since 2007 and have two children, Jerex (6) and Jaxton (4). They live at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains so most weekends they enjoy the typical Colorado outdoor activities like hiking, camping and fishing.
In the winter, the family goes skiing most weekends at Winter Park, Eldora, or one of the nearby mountains.
When asked about a most influential teacher or person, Jesse said "Growing up in a small town there are so many teachers, preachers, coaches, and members of the community that were positive influences in my life. People like Tim Lafferty, the late Todd Porter, and Lila McKeown coached or taught classes I was in from 6th grade all the way up through 12th grade.
And, of course, my parents Jay and Cathy Jones.
My dad coached or was a part of just about every sports team I was ever on. I still remember when I was in 5th grade and my dad heard some of the nearby towns had a 5th grade team so he decided to get some dads together and start one in La Harpe.
My parents both worked very hard to give us every opportunity."
Jesse still loves coming back to La Harpe, but says he doesn't get back as much as they'd like to. He states "It's a great place full of wonderful people that would give the shirt off their back to a stranger in need." He says he can't wait to come back this summer and run in the Old Glory 5K Run/Walk down Main Street of La Harpe on July 4th. Jesse says "Hope to see you all there!"