Paul Catmur to join Y&R

29 November, 2006

In a major talent coup, Y&R announced today that Paul Catmur will be joining the Y&R group as Australia/New Zealand Executive Creative Director from early 07.

Paul will play a key role in the development of the Y&R creative product, providing leadership across the group and promoting a strong creative culture.

Paul joins Y&R after a highly successful creative career, mostly recently as Chief Creative Officer DDB Asia Pacific. (Paul’s bio follows page 2.)

Y&R New Zealand CEO Jon Ramage says he’s “absolutely delighted” to have someone of Paul’s caliber join in a critical leadership capacity. “He’ll be a true partner for me to drive this business forward creatively and for growth,” he added.

Paul will be based in the Y&R Auckland offices and he will become a partner in the New Zealand business. He will also have a position on the Y&R Global Creative Board. Catmur said “the opportunity to work with Australia/New Zealand’s leading agency group was just too good to pass up and I’m really looking forward to working with Jon who has built a great business and a team.”

Paul is originally from London but is now a New Zealand citizen. He has a degree in Politics and International Studies from Southampton University. After a curious few years working in casinos as a craps dealer in London and the Bahamas he left to study at the School of Communication Arts in London. The day he left he started at Y&R London where he worked for nine years finishing as a Senior Copywriter and board member with Awards from the major London shows, One Show, Cannes and D&AD.

He left Y&R to write a book in the Cook Islands, and then traveled extensively before deciding he wanted to live in New Zealand. He joined DDB New Zealand in November 2000, has been Executive Creative Director since 2002 and last year was appointed Chief Creative Officer for DDB Asia Pacific. As well as much success at Axis and Award, DDB NZ have won metal across the world’s major award shows including, Gold at Cannes and Silver at D&AD.

The majority of this award winning work has been for major clients such as Sky TV, Volkswagen and McDonald’s. Over the last few year’s DDB have won Agency of the Year Awards from Campaign Brief, B&T, Adnews, Admedia and the National Business Review. Although Paul claims not to believe much in awards’ tables DDB NZ are currently creatively ranked third across Australasia by Campaign Brief.

Paul has judged at Cannes, Clio, 4A’s and Adfest. He has also been the Convenor of Judges at Axis in New Zealand and is currently Convenor of Judges both for Award and the Caxtons. In his spare time, when the weather’s too bad for fishing, he writes articles for advertising, fishing and car magazines.

ENDS

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