Article as published in Chicago Rewia on May 10, 2013
By: Ania Jablonowski
As the Director of External Communications at Leo Burnett, Tina Janczura is an expert in taking a message and projecting it accordingly to her respective audience. This is not just a talent that she picked up during her schooling at Valparaiso University and Cambridge; it has been ingrained in her psyche since early childhood.
Tina Janczura, First Generation American and Director of External Communications at Leo Burnett
Tina and her brother Tom are first generation Americans whose parents came to US from Bielsko-Biała, Poland in their early twenties. Though their parents lived near each other in their homeland, they met in Chicago and “came here with a blank canvas,” she says, admiring the fact that her family was able to start a new life with a new environment, culture, and of course – language.
Mr. and Mrs. Janczura were proud of their Polish heritage and made sure that their children grew up with a strong cultural experience, submerged in their roots, while adapting to the States. Growing up, Tina and Tom would travel to Poland for the summer each year, and like many of us “first gen’s” they attended Polish school on Saturdays. This certainly helped Tina connect to her heritage on such a special level, that she was recently seeking to join an organization that allows her to give back to her culture and considered calling the Polish embassy in Chicago to get involved. She jokes that it was serendipity that a mutual friend of ours to introduced us to each other for this interview.
First Generation American Project “Drinks & Dialogue” Studio Interview. From Left: Ania Jablonowski and Tina Janczura
With a highly successful career at Leo Burnett, Tina explains that she has been primed for this role her entire life. “I’ve been a spokesperson since I was a kid, since I would take messages, interpret them, flip them to another language, and carry them through.” She spoke Polish at home with her family, English with her friends and classmates, and translated from one language to the other. This came naturally to Tina. She recalls, “It was just something we would do and not even think about it. Looking back, it was a great experience. I feel so much more prepared for what I do for a living.”
“I never felt like I couldn’t succeed as a woman,” says Tina, noting that her inspiration stems from her parents’ hard work and determination to build a solid future for their family. In 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Janczura started R&J CNC Works, Inc., a quality manufacturing and machining company in Franklin Park. They happily employed Tina when she turned 16, and she laughs that her dad was “the toughest boss” she ever had. He handed her a big book of clients that he wanted to work for, and Tina got her first taste of marketing and sales by cold calling prospective clients.
Tina underlines that her Polish background helps her connect with Leo Burnett employees and clients all over the world. The global advertising agency is headquartered in Chicago and has about 10,000 employees and 96 offices worldwide. “My job is to protect and promote the agency, so I’m taking the stories from the agency and sharing them externally, whether it’s with press, with speeches, with leadership. So it’s like I’m serving as this communication liaison, this reputation manager, throughout my entire life.”
When working with Leo Burnett’s global offices or clients, Tina is able to embrace her culture in a way that first generation Americans can relate to and appreciate. “You have 15 seconds to sell your story because everyone is so busy, and they’re writing stories. They’re on deadlines. My 15-second sales pitch was explaining how to say my name. I would call and say, ‘Hi, this is Tina Janczura. Yes, it’s a C, a C-Z. The C, the C is silent.’ I didn’t even get to what I was trying to sell them. So what I started doing, and actually, it’s working really well, I have the phonetic spelling of my name in my email signature stamp.”
Tina says her ethnic name also acts as a door opener by catalyzing conversations about cultural values and traditions with people around the world. She even communicates with Leo Burnett’s Warsaw office by speaking and writing in Polish. “I do call my Mom or Dad, and ask, ‘OK. Can you just make sure I’m saying this right?’”
In addition to her PR career, Tina is also an avid photographer. “Photography was a passion that my parents and I shared growing up and still do today. What’s beautiful about photography is that regardless of your culture or nationality, images speak a universal language.”
Connect with Tina and check out her photography portfolio online at www.tinajanczura.com
First Generation American Project 