The life of Jenny Hagemann is full of creativity and adventure. Though the development and communications director has a winding career path, Hagemann notes that it always comes back to “building things.”
“I’ve always been drawn to environments where something needs to be created, improved, scaled, or reimagined,” she says.
Hagemann started her career at a small startup in Milwaukee, working in technology and business development at Zeon Solutions. After she aided in scaling the company for acquisition, Hagemann moved on to Amazon. “At Amazon, I became a founding member of Amazon Launchpad, helping build a new marketplace designed to help startups bring innovative products to millions of customers,” she says. “I worked across partnerships, sales, account management, and marketing strategy, which taught me how to take a big idea and turn it into something operational and measurable.”
When Hagemann decided to create and grow a business of her own, she opened Thousand Acre Cider House, a well-loved craft cider taproom and bar, where she gained new skills. “I learned an entirely different side of leadership,” she says. “Hiring and developing a customer service team, managing a physical space, navigating permitting and construction, building a brand, creating community experiences, and ultimately making an incredibly difficult decision when the pandemic made continuing unsustainable.” Thousand Acre Cider House closed two years after opening its doors.
Not willing to waste her experience, Hagemann forged ahead. “I wanted to apply what I’d learned about entrepreneurship, brand-building, communications, and community to something larger than my own business,” she says. “That led me to the Downtown Bellingham Partnership, where I’ve been since and have cultivated a reputation to advance from marketing manager to development and communications director.”
From selling technology, founding a valuable program within one of the world’s most recognizable companies, opening her own business, rebounding in her career after navigating the impossible circumstances of the pandemic to growing the breadth of a nonprofit dedicated to downtown Bellingham, Hagemann understands what it takes to be resilient and determined. “The common denominator is that I’ve always wanted to be close to the work of turning an idea into something real,” she says.
Despite having to close her business, the ripple effect of Thousand Acre Cider House still shines on Hagemann today. She cites receiving a Scepter Award in 2020 for Downtown Creative Powerhouse from Downtown Bellingham Partnership as a truly meaningful moment. “It wasn’t really about the award,” she says. “It was about the acknowledgement of the effort our small team had put into adapting our business during an incredibly difficult time.
That experience also serendipitously changed the way I understood the Downtown Bellingham Partnership’s work. As the pandemic continued and ultimately forced us to close the business after more than two years, I had the opportunity to join the organization that recognized us. I’ve now been with the Partnership for more than five years.”
Conquering this massive obstacle has led her to where she is today, in a position to help build and empower more than 400 downtown businesses through communications, events, fundraising and organizational strategies. “I’ve helped more than double private giving and increased our annual working budget by more than 20% over the past five years,” she says. “So, in some ways, the accomplishment I’m most proud of isn’t one award, business milestone, or fundraising number. It’s the resilience to turn one chapter ending into an opportunity to contribute in a completely different way.”
Throughout her life, Hagemann’s parents have been a focal point of influence, having ingrained an ironclad work ethic, individual responsibility, and the value of kindness in their daughter. “They taught me that if you’re in a position to help someone, you should,” she says. “They also taught me that nobody else will care about my passions and potential as much as I do, and to always advocate for myself and build my abilities so when the moment of opportunity comes, I am ready and confident to step up.”
Professionally, Hagemann credits two of her college professors, Dr. Rebecca Imes and Dr. Joseph Dailey, as her mentors. “As a first-generation college student, I didn’t have much context for what college was supposed to look like or how I was supposed to translate a communications degree into a career,” she says. “Both of them gave me something that has stayed with me: confidence that curiosity is an asset, not a liability, and that I can figure out what’s next.”
Hagemann believes that leaders should be bold and utilize their confidence to make clear, actionable decisions. “It’s not ideas or slogans that drift into nothing. People in positions of influence have a responsibility to show their constituents, their employees, and their communities what they actually produced that they said they would, and how it is making things better,” she says. “That doesn’t mean every idea will work. In fact, I think good leadership requires taking smart risks and being willing to admit when something isn’t working. But there needs to be accountability for moving from intention to execution.”
To those beginning in their own careers, Hagemann has some sage advice. “Say yes more than no. Don’t be too picky before you’ve earned advancement. Go experiment. Put yourself out there,” she says. “None of my own career moves would have happened if I’d insisted on having a perfectly mapped-out career path…. You don’t have to know exactly where you’re going. You just need to keep putting yourself in rooms where something interesting might happen.
Fun Facts from Jenny Hagemann
- Hagemann and her husband honored their passion for cider and charcuterie, which was the original impetus for Thousand Acre Cider House, by naming their dogs after apples, cheese, and cured meats.
- Kingston, their late pit bull who was with them when they opened Thousand Acre, was named after the bitter, sharp cider apple Kingston Black.
- Brie, their terrier and herding-breed mix, is named after Brie cheese.
- Morty, their pit bull-Chihuahua mix, is named after mortadella because he looks like a loaf of Italian bologna with very short legs.
The Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and Whatcom Young Professionals have announced the 2026 Top 7 Under 40 honorees, recognized annually for their contributions as young professionals in Whatcom County. The awardees will be celebrated at the Barron Home Services-sponsored Top 7 Under 40 Awards on October 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, where one will be named Young Professional of the Year. Click here for event details and tickets.
