Philip Jon Haarsma

PJ Haarsma is the founder and CEO of Redbear, an Emmy-winning integrated marketing agency and production company. His career spans more than three decades across photography, advertising, film and television, publishing, and digital marketing. At Redbear, PJ builds content that does two jobs at once. It holds an audience and it returns measurable results. Recent work includes Con Man, the digital series he executive produced with Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion, which earned two primetime Emmy nominations, and "The Journey," a commercial for UCI Health that won the 2021 Emmy for Best Commercial Spot. Redbear produces video, graphics, stills, and VFX in-house, on budget and on schedule. The portfolio is at redbear.tv/work. PJ is also the author of The Softwire, a four-book young adult science fiction series published by Candlewick Press. The New York Public Library named it a Book for the Teen Age, and it received the 2008 ABC News New Voices in Children's Literature Award. He co-founded the nonprofit Kids Need to Read with actor Nathan Fillion. The organization buys and donates books to underfunded schools, libraries, and youth programs across the country. His background pairs creative work with analytical training. PJ holds a combined science and arts degree with a physics focus from McMaster University and a data analysis certificate from MIT. Before Redbear, he produced broadcast campaigns at agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Wunderman West, for clients such as Southwest Airlines, Best Buy and Microsoft. His recognition includes the 2021 Emmy for UCI Health's "The Journey" and the Edward P. Hubble Initiative Award for his charitable work.