Ogilvy Sydney lures Aussie expat Brett Howlett back from the States to executive CD role

August 5 2011, 10:17 am | BY Lynchy | 24 Comments

Brett Howlett-small-2.jpgOgilvy & Mather Sydney has lured expat creative Brett Howlett back to Australia after an 11-year stint in the US, to take the reins of its sixty-strong creative department in the role of executive creative director.

He replaces Chris Ford, who left the role of ECD last month to return to the US for family reasons.

Howlett will leave New York and return to Sydney to take up the ECD role in September. He will be responsible for creative leadership and ultimately the creative work across all of Ogilvy Sydney’s clients.

“We’re very excited that Brett is joining the agency and will lead our talented creative team,” said Ogilvy Australia’s executive chairman, Tom Moult.

“We were able to persuade Brett that after eleven years in New York, it was time for him to come home. We’ve found an international creative director that just happens to be a local boy.”

Originally from Melbourne, Howlett spent nine years working for agencies in Sydney including Foster Nunn Loveder before leaving for the US. For the past 11 years, he has run large groups at New York agencies Bozell and Deutsch, and led teams as ECD at M&C Saatchi, and most recently at integrated creative agency Archibald Ingall Stretton.

During his time in New York, he’s brought creative and financial success to major brands like Bank of America, British Airways, The Economist, Financial Times and AXA Equitable.

Screen shot 2011-08-05 at 10.28.09 AM.jpg“I’ve spent the last 11 years applying what I learned as a creative in Australia to business in New York,” says Howlett (pictured by CB at our New York bash back in May). “This is a huge opportunity to now bring twenty years of advertising experience to a great agency brand, with an iconic client list, and a bunch of very clever people.”

Howlett’s award show credits includes The One Show, Clio, Mobius, Obie’s, Addy’s and Cannes. And he says he’s been fortunate enough to work across all media, from traditional, to experiential, to web film, and recently, a lot of digital.