Since 2001, Boathouse has done what consultancies won't and agencies can't. We start with the CEO's problem and then actually build the work. We're a privately owned team of 75 people, competing around the world from one office in Boston.
People trust us to deliver performance, not acquiescence.
Clients put their businesses, and often their careers, in our hands. We honor that by mastering the craft, staying curious, and telling the truth even when it costs us.
An idea that never ships is just an opinion.
We advise, then we build. Blue collar pride at every level, and one measure that matters: impact, not activity.
The global players can't go deep. We can.
Depth is our edge. Know clients and teammates as people, not roles. Invest before you need anything. Show up in the hard moments.
A great career inside a hollow life is a bad trade.
Family. Health. Community. Purpose. Build the life you want, and be good enough at the work to earn it on your terms.
When it gets hard, that's the race.
Own the outcome. Nobody ever hired effort. Solve root problems, persist through setbacks, and fight for the client's win until it's won.
Our leadership team brings together complementary expertise across strategy, brand, media, data, and technology, combining strategic perspective with practical execution to help clients achieve sustainable growth.
John is the founder and president of Boathouse. John grew up in the advertising business, starting his career at Hill Holliday. John went on to serve as CEO of Zentropy Partners, an internet services business, and served as a part of the McCann World Group Management team—at the time the largest agency in the world. In 2001, he founded Boathouse. John received a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, and spent 12 weeks at a transformative executive education boot camp at Harvard Business School.
Chris is CFO of Boathouse. He co-founded Boathouse with John in 2001. He worked in banking at Wells Fargo and consulting at IBM prior to teaming up with John at Hill Holliday and Zentropy Partners. Chris received a BS in Economics from Penn/Wharton and an MBA from Northwestern/Kellogg.
Sonia Chung leads the agency’s solutions strategy, capability expansion, and full-funnel marketing across brand, performance, data, CRM, analytics, and AI-driven transformation. Previously, she was Vice President of Digital Marketing at Delaware North, overseeing online and offline channel strategy across its global hospitality portfolio, including casinos, national park lodging, sports services, and restaurants.
Sonia brings extensive digital marketing experience from leadership roles at Google, Salesforce, and Digitas. At Google she drove data insights, sponsorship and media packages for YouTube and later served as Chief Strategy & Performance Evangelist, leading C‑suite partner engagements. She has deep expertise across AdTech and MarTech capabilities.
Since 2021, Sonia has been an adjunct professor of Digital Marketing at Boston University. She holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Bob Parks is a Managing Director at Boathouse, where he helps CEOs, CMOs, and marketing leaders translate business strategy into marketing programs that drive growth, revenue, and long-term value. With more than 25 years of experience, Bob partners with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to emerging businesses, helping them align marketing investments with business priorities and measurable outcomes.
His expertise spans brand strategy, performance marketing, and integrated communications across paid, earned, and owned channels. Working across industries including energy, financial services, healthcare, higher education, and technology, Bob brings a broad perspective to both B2B and B2C marketing challenges.
Known for connecting strategic vision with practical execution, Bob helps organizations clarify their market position, strengthen their brand narratives, and build marketing portfolios that support growth, improve efficiency, and create competitive advantage in an increasingly complex marketplace.
Maurya Overall brings more than 20 years of experience helping organizations grow through marketing strategies and campaigns that solve complex business problems. As a Managing Director at Boathouse, she partners with clients to clarify their purpose, align marketing with business priorities, and create programs that drive performance in an ever-changing digital and media landscape. Her experience spans complex B2B2C environments, including healthcare, higher education, financial services, nonprofit, and technology.
A seasoned senior account leader and strategist, Maurya is known for synthesizing insight, strategy, and execution across complicated business structures. She helps clients turn change into opportunity by building compelling narratives, aligning teams around clear priorities, and creating integrated campaigns designed to expand reach, deepen engagement, and support measurable growth. Her approach is grounded in curiosity, accountability, and a belief that the strongest organizations keep learning, evolving, and finding new ways to create value.
Michele Madaris leads a cross-functional team responsible for planning and activation across healthcare, utility, financial services, higher education, insurance, and ecommerce sectors. With more than 20 years of experience, Michele specializes in building full-funnel media programs that connect business objectives to measurable growth across broadcast, digital, social, search, outdoor, and emerging channels. She is known for combining strategic rigor with practical execution, bringing a channel-agnostic approach rooted in audience insight, measurement, and creative collaboration.
Dan Sears brings a strategic, measurement-driven approach to helping clients understand and improve marketing impact. After honing his marketing and analytical expertise at Harvard Business School for seven years, Dan has spent the past 13 years at Boathouse partnering with clients and internal teams to design high-performance marketing programs that connect strategy, execution, and outcomes.
His work focuses on building measurement frameworks that clarify what success looks like, evaluate performance across channels, and surface the insights needed to make smarter decisions. By linking marketing activity to business impact, Dan helps clients optimize investment, demonstrate value, and drive stronger growth.
Megan brings nearly 20 years of experience leading client relationships, integrated marketing, and business growth for nationally recognized brands. She has worked across leading marketing agencies including Hill Holliday, DDB, and Cavalry, helping brands navigate moments of transformation, from repositioning legacy businesses to launching new products. Her experience spans industries including healthcare, financial services, hospitality, CPG, higher education, QSR, fitness, and beverage.
Today, Megan leads Account Management at Boathouse, partnering across teams to deliver impactful, business-driving work. Known for building trusted relationships and bringing clarity to complexity, she takes a collaborative, results-oriented approach to every engagement.
Jackie leads Research, AI and Data Intelligence, helping clients turn market, customer and competitive intelligence into actionable business strategy. With more than 35 years of experience across strategy, research and insights, she helps organizations better understand their audiences, industries and market opportunities to drive smarter marketing, stronger growth and more informed decision-making. Her experience spans financial services, healthcare, energy, transportation, real estate, retail and CPG, with work for organizations including Mass General Brigham, TD Ameritrade, Eversource, Hasbro, Colgate, Target, TJX, McCormick and more. Jackie holds a BS in Economics and Marketing from Duke University.
Alex Pagliano helps organizations answer one question: how should marketing investment translate into business growth? As Boathouse’s leader of Performance Marketing and Business Development, he works across healthcare, financial services, higher education, and technology to connect strategy, measurement, and execution.
In 2024, he led the team recognized as Search Engine Land’s PPC Agency of the Year for its work with Corebridge Financial.
His background includes agency leadership and C-level operating roles within private equity-backed companies.
He holds an MBA in Accounting and has completed executive education through Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Kyle Bishop leads AI Studio and digital production initiatives at Boathouse, helping teams turn emerging technology into practical, scalable solutions that improve how work gets done. With more than 20+ years of experience across digital strategy, creative operations, production, and process optimization, he focuses on making AI approachable and actionable for both internal teams and clients.
Kyle works across conversational AI, workflow automation, content systems, and collaboration tools to help organizations move faster, work smarter, and unlock new creative opportunities. He believes the future of marketing belongs to teams that can successfully connect human creativity with machine intelligence to deliver stronger ideas, better experiences, and measurable business impact.
For more than 30 years, Margaret McGovern has helped brands cut through complexity, sharpen their identity, and create work that moves both people and businesses forward. She began her career as an art director at Mullen, where her work on BMW and Timberland helped elevate the agency to national prominence. She later took on creative leadership roles at Arnold, guiding work for brands including Fidelity and Royal Caribbean and building a reputation for pairing strategic insight with bold creative ideas.
At Boathouse, Margaret found an environment built around solving complex business challenges and creating meaningful work. She is known for helping organizations align teams, strengthen brands, and turn complex challenges into opportunities through creativity grounded in business strategy.
Over the course of her career, she has led work for brands including BMW, Timberland, Royal Caribbean, Coors, Verizon, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, New Balance, Ocean Spray, Eversource, Eastern Bank, Beth Israel Lahey Health, and Mass General Brigham.
Margaret’s work has been recognized by AIGA, Communication Arts, The One Show, and the Art Directors Club. She is equally passionate about mentoring creative talent and believes the best ideas come from curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to tackle complex problems.