ZOO Sydney lures awarded creative Mark Lees from UK for executive creative director role
After months of courting, ZOO Group has lured multi-award winning integrated creative director Mark Lees (left) back from the UK as ECD, based in the Sydney agency.
Lees, who left his role as national CD of MomentumWW/UK late last year, is one of the country’s most experienced creative people, with past roles including CD and ECD of major multinationals in Australia, Europe and Asia.
Having founded the iconic agency brand The TakeAway, Lees has also held global CD roles for TNT, Kellogg’s, Nestlé and Warner Lambert. Joining ZOO, Lees has been charged with leading the creative output of the Sydney shop, as well as lifting the creative profile of the entire ZOO Group.
Says Pawl Cubbin, Group CEO: “We’re delighted to have Mark on board. As a creative businessman, few can match his passion for outstanding creativity and business acumen. His global experience and local knowledge will be a great asset to all of ZOO Group’s clients. On top of that, he’s also a great guy.”
Lees hopes to make his worldly outlook and experience count as ZOO Group looks to open its first office in Singapore, where Lees worked as a CD of the legendary Batey Ads.
Says Simon Cubbin, MD and founding partner of ZOO Sydney: “There are a lot of creative people in Australia who have only worked in the tiny microcosm of Sydney or Melbourne advertising. Here at ZOO Group we bring a broader perspective – differentiating ourselves by being the agency that ‘asks better questions’. With Mark on board as ECD, we can now offer our clients even better answers.”
Under Lees’ stewardship, the ZOO team have won some major accounts in the past 6 months – producing an exciting variety of creative and effective work for new clients such as Flick Anticimex, Ricoh Australia, Wilderness Australia, Vanuatu Tourism, Women with Heart Disease and CSR Cemintel.
Says Cubbin: “This year’s going to be a really big one for us. We’re pretty excited about it already.”
20 Comments
Congrats Mark!
Marky Marky Moo Moo!
Hit it hard brutha!
Nice one mate! You’ll boss it for sure
Mark is the reason I joined advertising..congrats mate.. you’re a top bloke
“iconic agency brand The TakeAway” – WTF?
The Zoo has found it’s lion! Congrats mark.
Congrats Marky. Hopefully we’ll get that beer on one day.
Crushing it Marky.
Nice one Mark, see you soon Gazza.
I met you 3 years ago, in a hallway in Selfridges… do you remember? You were buying that tie and matching pocket hanky for an interview you were about to attend. Looks like it paid off my man, the elevator of life is going up, up, up.
Congratulations Mark! Lucky Zoo.
Congrats from the wanky hanky
if life were a zoo, you’d be the giftshop
Just stay away from the microphone.
Good to have you back sir!
Good luck mate ….run towards the problem!!
Nice one Mark, welcome back!!
Can you lend me some money?
Thanx for all the support and kind words.
It’s great to be back.
See you all soon for a beer, no doubt.
Welcome back and sincere congrats on your post. JBx