Jesse Thomas is the CEO and founder of JESS3, a creative interactive agency specializing in data visualization, social strategy and visual storytelling. Lauded as one of the “Web’s Hottest Designers” by Mashable, Jesse has been working toward owning his own agency since he was in his late teens. Obsessed with comic books, all things Disney and Pixar, MTV and video games growing up, Jesse has built a company that produces the wonderment and magic he was inspired by as a kid for vanguard clients that include Nike, NASA, Facebook, Google, Intel, Red Bull and Twitter. Recently named one of Washington's top 100 “Tech Titans” by Washingtonian Magazine, Jesse has been profiled by Communication Arts, PSFK and Modern DC Business Magazine for his unconventional thinking, creative genius and expansive vision for his company—to fuse “Silicon Valley with Madison Avenue.” With a background in information design and user experience, Jesse was one of the first agency principals in the world to choose data visualization as a central focus, which led to breakthrough projects for C-SPAN and PepsiCo during the 2008 elections. Since then, he has contributed social-design-driven methods to the recent redesigns of Samsung.com and Nike.com, while also expanding his team to execute large-scale installations for clients like Intel, American Express and Samsung and multimedia videos for clients like Gmail and ESPN that include stop-motion animation, papercraft and puppeteering.A dual citizen of New Zealand and the U.S., Jesse is the executive creative director and ideator behind the comic book The Zen of Steve Jobs launched in December 2011. The project is a co-production between Forbes and JESS3. Jesse also oversees JESS3's self-funded labs division, which prototypes and launches its own products and writes regularly for Forbes.