First bite size:

I’ve worked in 10 agencies, owned two of my own, spent 15+ years as a CD and ECD, won 100+ awards, served on award juries, made plenty of mistakes, learned loads, laughed a lot, struggled, and come through stage 4 cancer with nothing lingering but gratitude and an appetite for big things.

Now the scenic route:

I was peak kid in the 70’s, you know, cricket and footy in the street and riding my bike up the shops to buy my mum a soft pack of Peter Styvesant. I was mostly a city kid, but at 11, my parents packed us into the back of the Toyota Crown station wagon and headed bush for a few years to run some country pubs.

Like that, high school was over and law school was calling. Yeah, I finished it, but whoa, that just wasn’t me. But what the hell was? Serendipity saw me into the creative department of an ad agency, a job I won as ‘National Winner’ of AWARD School.

I bounced through the usual progression from junior to senior roles at agencies before eventually landing in the Creative Director chair at Lowe Hunt. Within a few years, the agency was named ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ and I was named in the Top 10 Creative Directors within the region.

I opened my own agency in 2011 and a food concept not long after. Both succeeded, both challenged me, and both taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned inside an agency. When you’re signing the leases, paying the wages and carrying the risk, you develop a very different appreciation for the commercial realities your clients face every day.

These days I split my time between long-term clients, agency freelance work and helping younger creatives navigate the challenges of building sustainable careers in advertising.

What keeps me interested after all this time is that the job never really gets solved. People change. Culture changes. Technology changes. Every brief is another chance to figure something out. That’s still fun.

Click here for my CV

COACHING: I also coach fellow creatives at The Well. After 30+ years in the industry I know the pressure, the politics, and the quiet toll they take. I’ve tutored, mentored and led more than 200 hundred creative people. Now I’m sharing what I’ve learned and serving others on their path.