Clemenger BBDO CCO Jim Curtis departs for EVP, Global Executive CD role at McCann New York

Campaign Brief can reveal that Clemenger BBDO chief creative officer Jim Curtis has departed the agency for the EVP, Global Creative Director role at McCann New York.

Curtis joined Clemenger BBDO in June 2020 from an awarded five year stint at Droga5 New York, and CB understands he is back in the States for family reasons.

Curtis told CB:  “I couldn’t be more thankful to Clemenger for the support provided to me over the past three and a half years while working with world class talent and Australia’s most iconic brands. I look forward to watching Dani and the team from afar enjoy all the success to come.”

Work created under his leadership at Clems include the Cannes Lion/D&AD winning VB Solar Exchange and FightMND campaigns, and most recently Carlton Dry and Carlton Draught.

Notable work created by Curtis at Droga5 included several mini-series for Mailchimp, a documentary with Gotham Chopra for Under Armour, and selling Australia to the world under the guise of a Crocodile Dundee reboot.

Prior to Droga5, Curtis had creative stints in Australia at BMF, DDB and The Leap Agency.

His work has been awarded at all major international shows, including Titanium at Cannes, yellow pencils at D&AD and gold at the Effies, One Show, Sirens, AWARD and Webby awards. He is also the recipient of the first-ever Logie for Most Popular Television Commercial.

When contacted, Dani Bassil, CEO Clemenger BBDO told CB: “Jim has resigned from Clemenger BBDO, to return to the US for family reasons. I want to thank Jim for his outstanding contribution to the agency over the last 3.5 years, and I wish him all the very best in the future.

“We are actively recruiting to fill the CCO position and will announce Jim’s replacement imminently.”