"What's wonderful about our work is that it's so diverse and you're always solving problems," says Cutwater's Jennifer Golub. "I find the strongest producers have this innate vocabulary of visual imagery, of music, of travel experience. It's this insight that can be brought to any project. Those resources can be drawn upon, and it makes you very strong."

For Golub, that vocabulary encompasses not only advertising but also the arenas of art, architecture and filmmaking. As much as she is known for her Emmy-winning work as director, executive producer and art director on Apple's benchmark "Think Different" campaign during her 17-year tenure at TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles, she is also regarded for her volunteer work (Virgin Unite, Conscious Youth Media Crew, Rock The Vote), her teaching (she lectured at the Pratt Institute, The Society of Architectural Historians and The Museum of Architecture) and for her well-received book on architect Albert Frey, Albert Frey Houses I & II, the recipient of the prestigious Graham Foundation grant. Her natural curiosity and expansive knowledge base informs not only her work but garners the respect and trust of those who work with her.

"As much as creatives push limits," says Cutwater founder and executive creative director Chuck McBride, "Jennifer is slugging away trying to do the same thing and that's important from a producer's standpoint. As for our working relationship, we work in the most symbiotic way. We seldom have to speak but we both know what each other is saying."

As director of broadcast/content production of the newly established Cutwater, Golub oversees production for the agency's entire roster of clients, including Jeep, Ray-Ban, Motorola and Fox Sports.

That new role at Cutwater may have inadvertently led Boards' conversation with Golub down the path of some lousy water metaphors but, thanks to Golub's nipping it in the bud, none of them will be printed here, which is a true indication of an individual worthy of the tag of excellence in advertising: someone who knows when to put a stop to a bad idea.

I had a full scholarship at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I studied fine arts and film and got very frightened while studying the Russian Constructivists in art theory class because it suddenly dawned on me that I had to get out of there and get a job - I realized that studying Malevich art theory wasn't going to pay the rent. I started as a switchboard operator at EUE Screen Gems and was also a PA. So I was pretty well entrenched in production by the time I graduated college.

My story has been a thread of very special mentors and Charlie Capuano was the first. He was a producer at Saatchi & Saatchi and said that as soon as I was of legal age to work he would ask me to join his department. Then I followed him to Y&R. My next mentors, who I must express gratitude to, are Elaine Hinton and Richard O' Neill, who brought me into the fold at Chiat/Day in 1989.

"Think Different" was a very interesting point in Apple's history. Steve Jobs had just returned to relaunch his company, there was no product and we had three weeks to create a piece that was based on [Apple's] belief system and put a stake in the ground as to who that brand is. The timing was so rigorous and the objectives were so great that I didn't feel that I could delegate. I worked in partnership with Susan Nickerson, a great stock footage researcher, and I made many of the calls [to get the rights to the footage] myself. In the middle of the night, I was trying to figure out how I could possibly get to the Dalai Lama, and I thought: I wonder, if I call Dharamsala information, if I could get his phone number? So I called, asked for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and got through to his right-hand person and we constructed the deal! It was very thrilling and I worked very closely with Lee Clow - this was his baby, he entrusted this task to me and it was probably one of the most special experiences of my life.

I've worked with Lee for many years and now I work with a brilliant creative director, Chuck McBride. When you're with someone who has such a clearly articulated, brilliant vision, you have to make it happen and that's the motivation. It's about really wanting to do something brilliant for a client. When you define a piece of work with exquisite clarity and insight you can truly change their business. It's a very powerful tool.

With Cutwater, we're a small, agile agency with enormous horse power, intelligence and the capability to do very big things. It's a unique place and I enjoy being part of the culture of a new agency, being part of a management team and helping to define a culture of creativity, vitality, rigor and mutual respect.

This honor is interesting because I don't ever see myself or anyone in terms of being a gender-based role model. I love what I do. I love having history with everyone from the ADs to the stylists to the production designers and everyone I've known for years. You earn their trust and respect and you know that each person in that trade is there simply because they're great.