Clemenger BBDO Brisbane revamps

Clemenger BBDO Brisbane has appointed Vanessa Brennan as managing director and former SapientNitro Australia executive creative directors Nancy Hartley and James Burchill as joint ECDs.

Brennan previously worked at Clemenger BBDO Brisbane, where she was client services director from 2003 until January 2006.  She then joined Cummins & Partners Brisbane (now SapientNitro) as national communications and CRM director. From 2009 until February 2012 she was head of marketing for Terry White Chemists, a role followed by a brief stint as CEO of Canstar Blue.

Hartley and Burchill joined SapientNitro in 2007 as creative directors, gaining international acclaim as creative directors on Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign. They were promoted to ECDs in March 2010. Both started their careers at Clemenger agencies with Hartley spending 15 years at Clemenger BBDO Brisbane as a copywriter and Burchill as an AFA graduate at Clemenger BBDO Sydney.

Clemenger Group executive chairman, Robert Morgan said it was a great opportunity to get some of the best people in Australia. The appointments make it one of the few Australian agencies where the majority of the executive leadership team is female.

“Vanessa, Nancy and James are passionate locals with international reputations,” Morgan said. “They are new-age advertising leaders who will help bring Clemenger BBDO Brisbane into line with the rest of the group and make us the number one agency in Brisbane. We will also be utilising their vast talents across the Clemenger Group nationally.” 

Morgan paid tribute to the current managing director Kurt Viertel who has resigned from the agency after three years at the helm, thanking him for his contribution.