Kiwi expat Malcolm Poynton moves into global chief creative officer role at Cheil Worldwide

Kiwi expat Malcolm Poynton has been officially announced as the first global chief creative officer for Cheil Worldwide, the global network encompassing McKinney, The Barbarian Group, Beattie McGuinness Bungay and iris.

Campaign Brief first broke the news of the appointment in June last year, but Poynton has been serving “gardening leave” since his resignation from the digital technology company SapientNitro where he was Chief Creative Officer for Europe for four years.

Poynton, who remains based in London, has a remit to help Cheil evolve into one of the world’s most recognised creative networks.

The new role has been created as part of Cheil’s push to boost its international growth and creative reputation.

Poynton will work alongside Chris Chalk, the global chief strategy officer, the chief digital officer Peter Kim, and the global head of RX Simon Hathaway. He will help grow the network’s global client portfolio, which includes Samsung, Samsonite and Hankook Tire.

Under Poynton’s creative leadership, SapientNitro was named Campaign magazine’s Digital Agency of the Year and produced multi-award-winning campaigns such as Unilever’s smile activated ice cream vending machine, Foot Locker’s ‘Sneakerpedia’, and RBS’s ‘GetCash’.

Prior to SapientNitro, Poynton was the ECD at Ogilvy & Mather in London where he built and led the teams responsible for Dove’s pioneering ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ and Cancer Research UK’s internationally recognised ‘Together We Will Beat Cancer’ work. Before O&M, he was the ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney, Australia and before that a senior creative at Omon, Sydney. He was also deputy creative director M&C Saatchi in London where he worked for five years between 1996 and 2001.

During Poynton’s leadership, SapientNitro, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather and M&C Saatchi have all been awarded Agency of the Year titles. He is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a former Cannes Lions Jury President as well as the recipient of over 100 international creative awards spanning Cyber, Film, Mobile, Social, Outdoor, Press and Innovation.

Says Poynton: “Cheil Worldwide has the talent, dynamism and the ambition to stand should to shoulder and even surpass the most creative networks out there. I’m looking forward to being part of making that a reality.”