Community Profile

Mary Jo Jacobi, Board Mentor, Criticaleye
Mary Jo Jacobi
Board Mentor
Criticaleye

A Criticaleye Board Mentor, Mary Jo offers rare insights into the inner workings and interactions of the private, public and third sectors gained from senior leadership positions on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mary Jo currently leads a strategic business advisory practice and is a Non-executive Director of Savannah Resources plc and was previously the NED for Engagement of the Weir Group plc. She is also a faculty member of the GLG Institute and a senior associate of International Marketing Partners and Atticus Communications. She is a member of Court of the University of Strathclyde and Oxford University's Rothermere American Institute, as well as previously a member of the international advisory boards of IE University.

She previously led reputation management for some of the world’s largest corporations, including Royal Dutch Shell, HSBC and Lehman Brothers.She also devised and delivered two award-winning global brand strategies and created the use of airport jetties for brand messaging. Mary Jo played pivotal management roles in three historic corporate crises, and most recently, she was Executive Vice President of BP America in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

In the public sector, Mary Jo was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments by Prime Minister David Cameron and reappointed by Theresa May, prior to which she was a British Civil Service Commissioner, appointed by Her Majesty The Queen under the Royal Prerogative. President George H W Bush appointed her Assistant US Secretary of Commerce (Minister of State) and she was Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, who also appointed her to his Advisory Committee on Trade Negotiations and, ex officio, to his Advisory Committee on Women’s Business Ownership. She began her career on the staff of the US Senate Committee on Commerce.

Mary Jo has been an executive director of Drexel Burnham Lambert and a Non-executive Director of Tate & Lyle PLC, Mulvaney Capital Management, the Ladies European (Golf) Tour and the Ladies Professional Golf Association, which she chaired for five years. In addition, she chaired the UK Forensic Science Service’s Independent Advisory Board and was a member of Dana Petroleum’s Advisory Board.

Mary Jo holds an MBA from George Washington University and a BBA from Loyola University New Orleans. She is based in suburban Washington, DC.