President & CEO, Barnes Agency
By Maggie Hatfield
Jeff Barnes, president and CEO of the Barnes Agency, credits his career success to integrity, honesty and respect.
“I have tried to navigate my professional career by doing the rights things for the right reasons even when nobody is looking,” he says.
It was under his father’s guidance that Barnes was first led down the health care career path. As a hospital financial services executive, he thought his son would excel in health care administration. Barnes began his professional career as an administrator in training at a large nursing home, but he was drawn to the world of advertising. He was able to blend his two passions when, after years of research, he saw a need in the region for an advertising agency that specialized in health care marketing and public relations. In 2003, he founded the Barnes Agency.
However, he quickly found out that starting an advertising agency was not an easy venture.
“In the early years, it was difficult to make a new agency work,” he says. “We were in the shadows of much larger, more successful ad agencies in West Virginia. There were many times I could not pay myself because I needed to pay my staff.”
Barnes credits his wife, Susan, and his early mentors, Lamar Wyse and Tom Jones, with seeing him through.
“Lamar was the one person who supported me launching my agency and
actually became my first client, which gave me the confidence I needed,” he says. “However, my whole world changed in 2004 when I met Susan. She became chief operating officer of the Barnes Agency in 2008, and that is when our growth really began. While I may be the face of the agency, she is the engine that drives our success every day.”
Today, Barnes focuses on business development and growing the agency’s national footprint as a West Virginia-based strategic health care marketing firm.
“I am involved in the creative process that has allowed us to be blessed with more than 500 regional and national awards for marketing excellence,” he says. “Even though I am proud of how far we’ve come, I would say my greatest achievement is the fact that our health care agency has not lost one health care client in nearly 10 years. Knowing that 90 percent of our clients are health care providers, that is an amazing statistic.”
This success is the product of a top-notch team, which has been cultivated largely from the agency’s formal internship relationship with Marshall University. Since 2010, Barnes has served as a mentor to more than 30 advertising, marketing and public relations interns.
“Nearly 70 percent of our current staff are former interns who now hold senior level positions within our agency,” he says.
Along with mentorship, Barnes is driven to give back in other ways. He is a member of the Light up the Night committee, which addresses Putnam County residents’ growing concerns about opioid addiction; a member of the executive committee for Project Redskin, which has raised nearly $1 million to renovate the outdoor athletic facilities at Hurricane High School; and co-chairman of the Putnam County Animal Relief Center Fund. He also recently served the board of directors for the Facing Hunger Food Bank and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State.
In past roles, Barnes has also served on the board of directors for organizations such as the United Way of Central West Virginia, Putnam County Chamber of Commerce, Autism Society of West Virginia, Marshall University’s Brad D. Smith School of Business and Putnam County Parks and Recreation.
“It is important for me to give back because I have been blessed with so many opportunities in life,” he says. “I count my blessings every day and feel I have a God-given responsibility to help others who have not been as fortunate.”
Barnes can’t imagine living out his dreams anywhere other than the Mountain State because of its resilient people.
“I choose to live and work in West Virginia because it’s always been my home,” he says. “Unlike folks in any other state I have been to, we are made up of people who have tremendous integrity, compassion and respect for each other, and that makes West Virginia a great place to be.”
1981 Drafted by the Texas Rangers
1999 Named to the inaugural class of Young Guns by WVE
2003 Opened Barnes Agency
2005 Inducted into University of Charleston Sports Hall of Fame
2011 Married wife, Susan
2018 Launched Barnes Health, a division of the Barnes Agency
2019 Launched satellite office of Barnes Health in Nashville, TN
