In 2025, native Cincinnatian Jessica Shely Green will celebrate a decade as a successful entrepreneur and the founder of GPD Creative Agency, a full-service marketing and communications firm that serves nonprofits, small businesses, and government agencies.
Equipped with degrees in journalism and design from Hampton University and Pratt Institute, her journey into entrepreneurship was built on extensive industry experience. She completed internships at one of the nation’s largest media conglomerates and held positions as a graphic designer and marketing manager. Eventually, she became the director of communications and advocacy at a prominent nonprofit in Greater Cincinnati.
During her career, Shely Green took a sabbatical to travel the world and reflect on how to best utilize her talents. While traveling, she noticed that many small businesses she had worked with either had minimal marketing staff or none at all. Recognizing this need, she saw an opportunity to serve as an independent extension of these lean marketing departments, assisting with marketing and communications tasks they couldn’t manage in-house. Thus, GPD Creative Agency was born.
Today, GPD offers a variety of services, including user experience design, website development, social media marketing, and content creation. The agency also functions as a brand strategy firm, working with both startups and established clients across diverse industries.
“As strategic partners in marketing and communications, we work to understand the messages our clients want to convey,” says Shely Green. “Ultimately, we’re a support system to promote their businesses and help produce the outcomes they want and need.”
The Small-Business Difference
Inspired by Maya Angelou’s quote, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” Shely Green says the differentiator between GPD and competitors is her firm’s commitment to customer service.
“We meet people where they are in business and take the time to build relationships and rapport,” she says. “We also have a systematic way to get the creative work done that sets us apart.”
GPD is a family-owned and operated creative agency founded by the viridiphile CEO, Shely Green, and her husband, Victor Green. They are business partners committed to staying at the forefront of technology. Their innovative business model has proven successful, resulting in steady year-over-year growth and multiple awards both within and outside the industry.
GPD is certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council and has received the Class I Supplier of the Year award in Ohio from the organization. The agency also garnered national recognition from the Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association for their website work done in collaboration with the Cincinnati NAACP, which helped the local chapter significantly increase its donation collections and grow its online membership sign-ups.
Shely Green was named one of the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 40 Under 40, an accolade that holds special significance for her as both a brain aneurysm survivor and a Black woman in the tech industry.
“I am proud of our Company’s growth over the past 10 years,” Shely Green concludes. “We strive to have a positive impact on people’s lives through creativity and tech, and I am so grateful for what I get to do every day.”
