Just four months after CAGnite announced its national launch, co-founder Kaitlin Gagnon landed on a list alongside the creative leaders behind Coca-Cola’s identity, Always #LikeAGirl, and Urban Outfitters.
Women We Admire has named Kaitlin, CAGnite’s Co-Founder and CCO, one of The Top Women Chief Creative Officers of 2026.
The list, published September 24, recognizes the women who decide how the public experiences a brand: what it looks like, how it sounds, and why anyone remembers it.
Kaitlin’s profile leads the honoree section.
In good company
The 2026 list reads like a tour of brands people encounter every day.
Judy John is Edelman’s first Global Chief Creative Officer and the creative force most associated with Always #LikeAGirl. Sarah Moffat of Turner Duckworth has shaped identities for Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Levi’s. Lauren Smith runs creative at 72andSunny. Marianne Fay leads it at Urban Outfitters, and Laura McKoy at Omni Hotels & Resorts.
Most of those leaders steer creative for organizations with decades of brand equity behind them. Kaitlin steers it for a founder-led agency in its first year, shaping CAGnite’s brand from the ground up while elevating every client’s along the way.
CAGnite was built coast-to-coast from day one, with CEO Austin Camp in Washington State and Kaitlin in the New York metro.
A storyteller first
Kaitlin entered the marketing world as a writer. She studied Communications and Journalism at Ramapo College, had articles published in national outlets, and earned awards as a screenwriter along the way.
She took that storyteller’s instinct somewhere with almost no margin for a loose sentence. At Milberg, an international plaintiffs’ firm of more than a hundred attorneys, she led press strategy, content, and brand communications, where every word could carry legal weight.
It’s also where she met Austin, then VP of Global Operations. Their roles kept overlapping, and the overlap kept working.
Want the full story of how CAGnite came together? Kaitlin tells it here.
In her own words
Ask Kaitlin about the honor and she’ll turn the spotlight around almost immediately. To her, great creative has never been a solo act.
It’s built in partnership, both in-house, where every idea gets sharpened and refined, and client-side, where the best work starts with trust.
“Thank you to my co-founder Austin Camp (who puts up with my incessant revisions), to Women We Admire, to my fellow honorees, and to every client who trusts us with their story,” said Kaitlin. “We’re just getting started.”
What comes next
Recognition is worth celebrating. It isn’t the finish line.
CAGnite is heading into its first full year with one goal: raise the bar for what businesses should expect from a marketing agency. That means creative that earns attention, systems that turn attention into growth, and a partner who shows the receipts. The year ahead is about proving it, one client result at a time.
Congratulations to every woman featured on this year’s list.