Howard Lenn

My work as a creative leader has been about helping people live a little better than the day before. I’m passionate about supporting communities who have been underserved, from rare disease, to mental health, to overcoming stigma. I love ideas that use humor and connection to battle heartbreak and create optimism and even joy.

I have had the opportunity to put my ideas into practice on behalf of consumer, business-to-business, and healthcare brands. Ongoing partnerships with non-profits have kept the meaning of my work in focus. And I strive to inspire my teams to find their meaning and express it in their work.

At Havas Lynx New York I served as Executive Creative Director, guiding the agency since 2021 from a mid-sized contender to the 2025 MM+M Large Healthcare Agency of the Year. In 2024, I helped the agency go 6 for 8 in new business wins. And in 2023, an award-winning initiative for the American Parkinson Disease Association set a new creative standard for the agency and attracted neuroscience clients Esai and Takeda.

Prior to Havas, I was creative lead at the TBWA/Chiat/Day health collective, notably rebranding Adaptive Biotechnologies and developing the trial recruitment campaign to validate the J&J/Apple iWatch cardiology app.

At J. Walter Thompson, I was creative lead for the U.S. Johnson & Johnson portfolio of over-the-counter medicines, as well as the global lead for allergy and eye care. In 2012, I relaunched Tylenol with an emotional campaign that helped the brand regain its iconic status. Before taking the reigns of J&J, I was a creative director on Schick Razors, Merrill Lynch, and DeBeers Diamonds. 

My work has been honored by nearly every creative award show, featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and published by Archive, Communication Arts, Ads of the World, and more.

I live in Manhattan with my wife, a graphic designer and artist, and we have two grown sons in the sciences. Outside of work, I’m an amateur photographer of wildlife and landscapes. And we hike wherever we wander, locally in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.