McCann bolsters Sydney team with key hires following its successful new business run

To support a growing client base including the recent wins of Microsoft, Charles Sturt University and Botanica, McCann Sydney has made five senior hires across a variety of disciplines.

In planning, Ian MacDonald joins as planning director, heading up the agency’s planning offering alongside planning director Roshni Hegerman. MacDonald is returning to Australia after having spent 13 years working in Germany and the UK, most recently as head of planning at Publicis London. At McCann, he will work across Microsoft, MasterCard and Urban Growth among other clients, bringing with him a focus on technology, data and digital expertise.

In account management, Lucy Smith has joined the team as group account director, working with executive director Alex Baker on the Uncle Toby’s business. Most recently Smith served a four-year stint at Banjo and close to five years at Ogilvy prior to that.

Combining technical skills with project management experience, Cobie Dellicastelli takes on the role of digital project director, joining McCann from Macquarie Group where she spent more than eight years, most of that time as digital team lead, marketing and communications. Prior to that she served as senior consultant at Ernst & Young.

Also joining are Matthew Flinn as in-house editor and Phil Harkness as art director. A video producer extraordinaire, Flinn comes to McCann via the Seven Network having worked as a digital media designer before that. Harkness’ creative career includes a stint as a designer for Mambo and a creative at Ogilvy, as well as running his own design agency.

Says Adam Lee, managing director, McCann Sydney: “We are excited about the sustained growth of McCann Sydney and bringing on first-rate talent to help with our expanding client list is an important part of guaranteeing ongoing success – for our business and that of our clients. Our goal, as a new-generation hybrid agency where creative and media have again fused, is to continue to assemble the most impressive multi-skilled agency talent pool across Australia, and these guys certainly live up to that task.”