Your Own Best - A Leadership Talk with Mona Munayyer Gonzalez

When Mona Munayyer Gonzalez was younger, her parents told her, “It doesn't matter to me what you do, but I want you to be the best at it. And not the best in the world, but whatever that means for you.” Gonzalez took those words to heart, and today, she is the President of Pereira O’Dell, an award-winning full-service creative advertising agency. 

In a FUTURE NOW Leadership Talk commemorating Women’s History Month, Gonzalez shared how she fell into her career in advertising.

The youngest of three daughters born to Palestinian immigrants, Gonzalez initially wanted to follow in her sisters’ footsteps and attend Georgetown. First, she was waitlisted, and then outright rejected. “That, at the time, killed me,” Gonzalez admitted. But it would teach her a valuable lesson about carving her own trajectory. “I went on my own path… in many ways in life… It has only made our world and our family so much more beautiful.”

Gonzalez ended up majoring in Business Administration and Marketing at Villanova University and landed a job in advertising at J. Walter Thompson—a pioneering firm founded in 1864 and one of the largest global full-service marketing agencies.

“I really love… the storytelling. [It] is such a… visceral and beautiful part of this world, and I was just so inspired by the scale of it,” Gonzalez explained. 

Gonzalez has taken that love of storytelling to Pereira O’Dell. Pereira O’Dell has partnered with clients from TikTok to National Geographic and turned their strategy, “whether that’s brand strategy, or communications planning, or media strategy… into really compelling, creative work.” In other words, they tell a story. 

That could mean an advertising campaign on television, billboards, social media posts, or a more hands-on experience. For Bisquik, Pereira O’Dell capitalized on the popularity of season five of “Fargo,” which prominently featured biscuits to create limited-edition Bisquik boxes available exclusively at a store in remote Minnesota. 

This creativity has allowed both Pereira O’Dell and Gonzalez to thrive in a fast-changing industry. With the advent of the digital creator economy, advertising has had to pivot. The companies that had coasted on their success and valued tradition above all else suddenly began to struggle, as more nimble companies that could “respond to that digital economy appropriately” thrived. 

“Being able to understand a digital culture faster and respond to it is really… the name of the game,” Gonzalez said, and she chose Pereira O’Dell because of its ability to do just that. “This agency builds brands that live at the intersection of marketing, technology, and entertainment.”

In 2023, Gonzalez was named Pereira O’Dell’s first-ever Chief Growth Officer, where she implemented her parents’ wisdom. “The growth of the business and the growth of the people are not mutually exclusive,” she told attendees. Nor does growth look the same for each employee. Gonzalez’s goal is to create “[an] environment where people can show up at their best.”

This mindset has served her well at Pereira O’Dell and throughout her career, especially in a pre-MeToo world. While at J. Walter Thompson, Gonzalez noticed a huge gender gap in both pay and employment. 

“There was one woman in the room for every ten,” she recounted, “and those women—understandably, I say this with zero judgment—fit a very specific archetype of what it meant to be a leader, which is you railroad everything, you crush everyone in your way.”

But Gonzalez was not like that, nor did she want to be that way. “I am not the type to come into the room and take the energy,” she said. “I'm not a wallflower, but I speak when I feel like I have some things of substance to contribute.”  And, it is this leadership style that led Pereira O’Dell to experience a 40% growth in business.

Today, as President, Gonzalez continues to channel her parents’ advice. “What can I do in my role to make sure that everyone's showing up at their best? Because that is what I believe my role ultimately is. If you have the right talent, then your job is to make sure that they have the conditions to succeed, right? And keep growing.” 

Her leadership philosophy extends beyond her organization—grounded in authenticity and a commitment to helping others thrive, she empowers her teams while investing in the next generation, drawing her naturally to FUTURE NOW’s mission.

“Part of the reason why I was so interested in [FUTURE NOW] is that I think a big part of the solution is figuring out how to support the incoming talent, to show them the possibilities, to support them on that journey,” Gonzalez said. Recently named to the board of FUTURE NOW, she is bringing that same people-first mindset to shaping opportunities for students and early career professionals. 

When asked for advice on succeeding in an increasingly AI-driven world, Gonzalez emphasized “the ability to focus” and communication skills, both written and verbal. “Being able to articulate yourself from a written perspective is just an immediate green flag, because… that is a lost art,” she told attendees. “Can you persuade a room…to have that skill, whether it's presentation skills or storytelling skills or just being able to articulate who you are as a person in an interview, goes a really, really, really, really long way.”

Addressing the current challenges of the industry, Gonzalez acknowledged that students and recent graduates are “up against a lot… that feeling is real, and you are right to feel it.” However, Gonzalez is hopeful. 

“I am hugely optimistic,” Gonzalez shared. “This is when the best Renaissance comebacks happen…when there is this much of a seismic shift in the industry.” 

Gonzalez urged the audience to reframe how they think about change–to consider it as a catalyst for growth and forward momentum. “Stay optimistic as much as you can, and use it as an opportunity to find, amidst all the rubble and building and rebuilding and crashing and falling, the real gems in there that are what push the industry forward. Because the industry, all of our industries are staying. They might just look a little different, but they all serve a really important, important role.”