Proud Products of Texas Public Schools

Gay Gaddis

Liberty High School
Liberty ISD

Gay Gaddis is president and CEO of T3 (The Think Tank), an advertising agency with offices in Austin, New York, and San Francisco. She started the company in 1989 with a cashed-in IRA and two employees. Today, T3 is the nation’s largest independent advertising agency wholly owned by a woman, with $230 million in capitalized billings. T3 works with such clients as Dell, Marriott, JCPenney, JPMorgan Chase, Cisco, UPS, John Deere, Universal, Ingenix, and Microsoft.

Gaddis is an active industry spokesperson and entrepreneurial advocate. She blogs for PINK magazine and is a columnist for iMedia Communications, an interactive media and marketing trade publisher. She recently participated in the Global Summit of Women in Berlin, The New York Times Small Business Summit, and the iMedia Agency Summit. Gaddis is a member of the Texas Governor’s Business Council’s executive board, Women’s Leadership Exchange national advisory board, and the Committee of 200.

Gaddis’s dynamic business acumen and corporate culture has led to national recognition. She has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Top 25 Women Business Builders and Inc. magazine’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year, as well as one of 25 Advertising Working Mothers of the Year by Working Mother magazine. T3’s family-friendly workplace programs have been recognized by the White House, “The Today Show,” The New York Times, Fortune Small Business, and “Good Morning America.” 
 
Gaddis started as a copywriter with The Richards Group. She then served as public relations director for Baylor University Medical Center, marketing director for Leadership Dynamics (a national management consulting firm), and full partner at an Austin advertising agency. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from The University of Texas at Austin.

“One of my math teachers, W.J. Harlan, had a tremendous impact on me. Being that math was not one of my strongest subjects, Mr. Harlan taught me how to draw on my judgment, or ‘horse sense’ as he called it, to make good decisions. This lesson remains with me today and has extended far beyond the subject of math.”

— Gay Gaddis