Jo Bennett

Jo Bennett
Background information
Television programs	The Office
Portrayed by	Kathy Bates
Character information
Full name	Joleen MaryAnn Bennett
Occupation	CEO of Dunder Mifflin/Sabre
Pets	Two Great Danes
Allies	Nellie Bertram Robert California
Enemies	Gabe Lewis
Likes	Guns Her dogs
Fate	Steps down as CEO of Sabre and gives the position to Robert California

Joleen MaryAnn "Jo" Bennett is a character in the NBC sitcom The Office. She is played by Kathy Bates.

Jo is introduced in season six as the CEO of Sabre, a company that purchases Dunder Mifflin. She is a stubborn and forthright Southern woman. She makes the office excited, due to her southern charming ways, however, when she realizes that there are two regional managers of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, she decides to choose Jim or Michael. Despite being generally nice, she can be stubborn at times and is used to getting her way. She does not like making mistakes and does not want people to think of her in a negative way. Despite being very successful, she has a flakey working routine according to Gabe.

Biography

Jo has written her own autobiography titled Take A Good Look. She owns two great Danes that she frequently makes Gabe take out for walks. Jo is a breast cancer survivor and a licensed pilot.

Season 6

Jo first appears in a video chat in "Sabre" and in person in "The Manager and the Salesman", when she visits the Scranton office for the first time. On her last day in Scranton in "St. Patrick's Day", Darryl impresses her with an idea for improving shipping and she rewards him by giving him Jim's old office. That evening, when she's still working while the rest of the staff is desperate to leave and enjoy the holiday, she shows her respect for Michael after he tells her he's allowing his employees to leave.

In "Whistleblower", the season finale, Jo comes to Scranton determined to find out who leaked information to the press about Sabre's printers catching on fire. She eventually zeroes in on Michael, who refuses to speak and brings him to her private airplane to get him to confess, but in reality, Jo is able to sense that Michael is going through a rough patch and the two have a heart to heart conversation. During the conversation, Michael volunteers to accept public responsibility for the scandal and speaks to the press. Jo thanks Michael and says that if there's anything he needs, she'll be happy to help, prompting Michael to joke about bringing Holly back to Scranton, to which Jo says "Let me see what I can do." (and Holly does return temporarily in season 7).

Season 7

In season 7, following the departure of Michael and his replacement Deangelo Vickers, Jo makes Dwight the interim regional manager in "Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager", but replaces him with Creed (Scranton's most senior employee) after Dwight accidentally fires a gun in the office. She appears in "Search Committee" and reveals that she is old friends with one of the applicants for the manager job, Nellie Bertram. When Jo finds out about Gabe's current personal issues concerning Erin and Andy, she decides to transfer him back to the Florida headquarters. She also tells the committee to grant Dwight an interview, saying she likes "a little bit of crazy."

Season 8

In the eighth season premiere, "The List", Jim recounts to the camera crew how Robert California was hired as branch Manager over the summer, but immediately quit, drove all the way to Sabre headquarters in Florida, and then convinced Jo to give him her position as the company's CEO. However, Jo remains as chairman of the board, and Robert still refers to Jo as his boss. Later in season 8, Nellie re-appears, having been hired (off-screen) by Jo as Sabre's President of Special Projects. Following Robert's destructive management of Sabre, Jo liquidates the company and sells Dunder Mifflin to former CFO David Wallace.