The
World’s Most
Unsuccessful Surf Trip
This all started as a six-month surfing sabbatical. I’d just wrapped my first few years in Cape Town, working on Nike and picking up my first creative award. The plan was simple: take a break, chase some waves, figure out what’s next.
That trip didn’t quite go to plan. It took me to New Zealand, then Australia, then the US. Somewhere along the way, the sabbatical turned into a career. One shaped by the places I landed and the people I was lucky enough to work alongside.
In New Zealand, Colenso taught me the value of audacious ideas and what it really takes to bring them to life. In Sydney, M&C Saatchi stretched me into integrated campaigns and introduced me to leadership. Launching Mark, their digital and data agency, gave me my first true sense of how creativity and technology could power each other.
I saw the force of an ideas-first culture at TBWA. At R/GA, we started the Sydney office from almost nothing and built something that reshaped how I thought about innovation and collaboration.
AKQA San Francisco opened up new ground again. I led work for Audi, IBM Watson, Levi’s and Apple, blending emerging tech with storytelling.
That trip didn’t quite go to plan. It took me to New Zealand, then Australia, then the US. Somewhere along the way, the sabbatical turned into a career. One shaped by the places I landed and the people I was lucky enough to work alongside.
In New Zealand, Colenso taught me the value of audacious ideas and what it really takes to bring them to life. In Sydney, M&C Saatchi stretched me into integrated campaigns and introduced me to leadership. Launching Mark, their digital and data agency, gave me my first true sense of how creativity and technology could power each other.
I saw the force of an ideas-first culture at TBWA. At R/GA, we started the Sydney office from almost nothing and built something that reshaped how I thought about innovation and collaboration.
AKQA San Francisco opened up new ground again. I led work for Audi, IBM Watson, Levi’s and Apple, blending emerging tech with storytelling.
Back in Sydney, I joined Ogilvy and later CHEP Network, helping lead teams that not only made award-winning work but built the kind of creative cultures that made it possible.
CHEP was a real highlight. A different shaped agency where creativity lived at the intersection of media, tech and data, and where I was lucky to do some of the most meaningful work of my career, recognised with Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, Spikes, One Show Asia, AWARD and, most importantly, the Effies.
Across each chapter, I’ve kept learning how creativity works when it really works, when it moves people, solves something, or helps a brand matter more.
And the surf trip?
Still going. Just with more meetings than I expected.
CHEP was a real highlight. A different shaped agency where creativity lived at the intersection of media, tech and data, and where I was lucky to do some of the most meaningful work of my career, recognised with Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, Spikes, One Show Asia, AWARD and, most importantly, the Effies.
Across each chapter, I’ve kept learning how creativity works when it really works, when it moves people, solves something, or helps a brand matter more.
And the surf trip?
Still going. Just with more meetings than I expected.