After nearly three years Kieran Antill departs ECD role at J Walter Thompson, Melbourne
![Kieran_02[1].jpg](https://asset-cdn.campaignbrief.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/05070503/Kieran025B15D.jpg)
Campaign Brief can reveal that J. Walter Thompson Melbourne has parted ways with executive creative director Kieran Antill after nearly three years in the role to focus on his family and outside interests.
Managing Director Michael Godwin thanked Antill for his contribution to the business, and his focus on the creative department which he leaves in “excellent shape”.
Says Godwin: “Kieran has played an instrumental role in the success of the Melbourne office, making multiple new creative hires, establishing a consistently high bar for our output across a diverse client base, and introducing an integrated design team. He has also driven many internal initiatives that have helped all our staff recognise and celebrate creativity in multiple forms and unite in a shared creative ambition for the agency. He leaves an established, market-leading team who will continue this legacy of creative focus.”
Says Antill: “Being the ECD of JWT Melbourne has been a privilege. I am so very proud of what we have achieved; the growth we’ve had; the shared creative ambition and the teamwork that has overcome daily challenges.
“While this has been an exciting ride, one that I’ll be forever grateful for, it has run its course. So, at this time, in this place I will be stepping back to focus on other interests, and my next venture will be named in the new year.”
Godwin said a plan is already in place regarding the future structure of the creative department and is soon to be announced.
Antill, who joined the agency in December 2015, was previously based in the US where he was ECD of Leo Burnett New York. Prior to this, he was at Leo’s Sydney, where he and partner Michael Canning became the most awarded creative team in Australia, and where Antill was ranked the #1 Art Director worldwide at Cannes.
Antill can be contacted via his website kieranantill.com
24 Comments
Kieran is one of the industries true gents. A great leader and a champion of equality, having made a number of junior female creative hires in his time at JWT.
Big loss for the agency, but can’t wait to see what he does next.
An absolute gentleman and practitioner. Can’t wait to see what’s next for this man.
Hiring female juniors isn’t really championing equality.
Promoting women to senior roles makes a stronger case for it.
But as I understand it senior women were let go under Kieran’s leadership.
When the going gets tough and JWT is loosing clients its a good time to pull out.
When the going gets tough and JWT is loosing clients its a good time to pull out.
Giving roles to clearly talented women, juniors or otherwise, and providing mentorship is critical in allowing true talent to grow into senior roles and become worthy female leaders of our industry. Given JWT have recently had a string of redundancies across the group, most very senior roles, I hardly think we can attribute them to this poor sod.
With no creative leadership in that place, JWT is heading back down the toilet. Watch the suits take over.
Do you mean “losing”?
So now nobody is allowed to fire old, dead wood if it’s female?
And how dare they replace old, female dead wood with new, female wood instead of new man wood?
I thought only minorities were provided with ‘protected species’ status in our industry, clearly not the case anymore – working mums who leave at 3pm every day and contribute 2/5ths of fuck all are also protected.
I think you might be missing your talkback radio show.
You deserve to be fired, mate. It’s comments like that that make this industry look repulsive.
How did his departure became a debate about equality. You Australian ad people are idiots.
An extremely thoughtful, considerate and intelligent leader. Wish you good luck in the new gig Kieran.
From my experience Kieran is one of the most talented and passionate creatives in the industry, and an incredibly inspiring and supportive mentor and boss. His departure is a huge loss for JWT Melbourne, and takes the shine off the agency. Hope he starts his own thing, a lot of creatives would follow him in a heartbeat.
Good luck Kieran.
WPPAUNZ agencies are on fire at the moment and not in good way – in a towering inferno, Nakatomi Towers sort of way.
JWT going back to the dark days time for the over paid flogs to take full responsibility starting from the CEO, CFO ETC.
Just because you were a woman and useless for the job you were hired for, wouldn’t make him a bad leader for letting you go. This makes the equality issue hard to fight when women of no talent now expect they deserve more opportunities than others. They just want to be treated equally. Which means if you aren’t deserving of promotion, you wont get one. Now as someone just said above. Shut up. This is not the place to air your dirty laundry.
“Women of no talent now…”
I reckon the last time this guy ^^ got laid, if ever, was a long time ago.
Scurry on back to your incel group, you poor, sad, ugly wretch.
why are the negative comments getting removed?
The irony is that nowadays if a man in power promotes a woman, his agenda is immediately questioned along with the woman’s actual competency. That’s because the repulsive feminist culture has made people believe the only reason a man would promote a woman is to be seen to be doing the right thing. Well done feminists, you’ve taken down women to bring down men.
Weather is nice today.
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to see that ‘Observer’ is right. Anything mildly negative is getting removed.
I smell a rat.
Everyone is all talk behind there keyboards.