AKQA San Francisco Welcomes Gavin McLeod as Executive Creative Director

AKQA San Francisco hired Gavin McLeod as executive creative director, tasking him with leading the office’s creative department, reporting directly to managing director Simon Jefferson.

“Gavin is passionate, entrepreneurial, highly curious and focused on creating what’s next,” Jefferson said in a statement. “He’s collaborative and has built strong teams with an incredible work ethic and a proven track-record of creating award-winning work. Gavin joins us at a time when we are partnering with some of the world’s best companies to help define their vision and architect the future-state of their customer experience.”

“I’ve admired the work that AKQA has been doing for many years,” added McLeod. “As a company, they’ve always struck me as being fearless in pushing the boundaries. I look forward to helping the San Francisco team push these boundaries even further.”

McLeod joins AKQA from R/GA Sydney, where he has served as executive creative director since the office opened in January of 2013. He was one of the initial team of four and helped build the office to a team of over seventy, working with clients including Google, Telstra, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Samsung and Twitter. Before that he spent a little over a year and a half as a creative director with Whybin\TBWA in Sydney, where he helped launch shopper marketing branch Integer and worked on NRMA Insurance, the agency’s largest client. That followed eleven years with M&C Saatchi, where he rose from senior art director to executive creative director and helped launch M&C’s digital, direct marketing and data offering, Mark. While with M&C Saatchi, he worked with clients including Qantas, ANZ Bank, Woolworths, NRMA Insurance, and Optus Telecommunications.