Mary Johanna Brown

Mary Johanna Brown is the founder and president of Brown & Company Design, a strategic design firm launched in 1992, and Big Brown Books, a small publishing company founded in 1996. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a BFA in etching, Mary Jo is known for her leadership in design, business, gender equality, civic engagement, and the arts.

 

Nicknamed “Pro-Bono Brown” early in her career for her passion for charitable work, in 1999 this commitment was formalized through Brown & Company’s annual pro-bono partnership program, donating design services to a staff-selected nonprofit every year.

 

Mary Jo is widely recognized for her leadership and impact, including honors as New Hampshire Magazine’s “Remarkable Women” (2009) and “It List” (2018), Business NH’s “Influence Index” (2014), and NH Business Review’s “Outstanding Woman in Business” (2018). In 2023, she was named UNH’s Paul J. Holloway Entrepreneur of the Year.

 

In addition to being the Founding Board Chair Emeritus of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, Mary Jo has served on numerous nonprofit boards including the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Leadership NH, CASA NH, A Safe Place (now HAVEN), NicaLove, and more.

 

Mary Jo is a sought after and powerful speaker and writer advocating for gender equality, women’s leadership, the role of the arts, and civic engagement. She has curated and juried several local art exhibits and public art commissions, including the “Red She Said” (2019) show at PMAC and “Reflections on Portsmouth” (2018), curated for the Foundry Garage. In 2012, Mary Jo and her daughter Haley co-founded Brown’s Art Camp, a short summer program for girls focused on immersive art experiences, that ran for 10 years.

 

Other “good troublemaking” includes taking over Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account for a day in 2016, guest teaching at universities and schools, documenting animal rescue clinics in Nicaragua, traveling extensively with her daughter Haley, and winning a second prize ribbon for her apple pie at the Deerfield Fair. More recently Mary Jo has dipped her toe into personal storytelling through the series “Long Story Short.” Two of her appearances aired on NHPR.

 

As a photographer, Mary Jo enjoys slow-motoring in the Seacoast waterways and taking photos from Neptune, her nine-foot-two traditional wooden tenderly dinghy—built by her daughter Haley’s class at Rye Junior High in 2018. Haley, now a junior at Emerson College, refuses to boat on the vessel she helped build.