I'm James Jenkins. I've spent 20+ years building and leading businesses where technology, creativity, and commercial growth meet, from London to San Francisco, New York, and now Stockholm.

Co-founder of Encoded Brands, using that experience to help brands navigate the agentic era. I am excited by what technology now makes possible, and by how you turn it into real commercial advantage.

Previously I led Forsman & Bodenfors, first as Group CEO across Sweden, the UK, and Ireland, with full P&L responsibility and a portfolio including Barilla, SKF, Volvo Cars, and Supercell, and then, from 2025, as European CEO. The work throughout was integration: bringing strategy, creative, product, and operations together so that financial performance and creative work both got better.

That chapter ended when Stagwell consolidated its creative agencies into the 72andSunny Creative Collective in 2025. It was the push I needed to build rather than run. Encoded Brands is the result.

Before that I was Global COO of B-Reel, helping scale the business across six markets in the US and Europe, with work for Google, Nike, LVMH, Activision Blizzard, and H&M, and recognition from Fast Company, Adweek, and Ad Age.

I started at AKQA when digital was still emerging, eight years close to the global Nike relationship and major launches with Microsoft and Xbox, through the agency's rise to Ad Age Agency of the Decade.

That experience shaped how I approach change: move early, stay curious, back ideas before they are obvious. I care deeply about the people I work with. We get one go at this, so we might as well build something good and enjoy it.

Away from work, I'm a husband and dad to two daughters, plus a dog and a cat. I'm happiest outdoors, whether that's a forest, a mountain, or the sea. I studied at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and I stay involved as an active alumnus of the business school.