Group Executive Director,
Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia
As a bartender, Gavin found ad people much like his customers who drank until 3am. They smelt bad, were incoherent most of the time and frequently broke. And that’s just the women. But he liked their stories and the jokes they told. So began his fascination with advertising.
He started his career with O&M Direct back in 1991 and moved to Drayton Bird, Crocker & Mano before moving to mainstream advertising at Naga DDB in 1998. After two years he returned to Ogilvy and was ranked as the No.1 local creative in 2002 and 2003. He won Malaysia’s first Gold & Silver One Show Pencil in 2002. Subsequently, he won more awards as Creative Director at Y&R Malaysia and Leo Burnett Kreasindo in Indonesia.
Gavin joined Ogilvy & Mather Philippines as Executive Creative Director in 2005. As well as driving the quality of the creative output, Gavin was tasked with the role of mentoring local creative teams, ensuring they work towards global standard. Under Gavin’s leadership, Ogilvy & Mather Philippines was awarded 2006 Creative Agency of the Year in the 4A’s Agency of the Year Awards. In the Philippines 2006/7 Creative Guild Awards, Ogilvy once again were number 1 agency, garnering the most number of Gold – 9. To top his incredible 12 months turnaround, Gavin also won a Gold Cannes Lion for the ad ‘Land Rover/Direction’. Incidentally, the ad also was voted the 4th Best Ad in the world by The Gunn Report.
He then took on the role of ECD for Ogilvy HK in June 2007. Gavin’s leadership was instrumental in Ogilvy winning the highly sought-after global account- Shangri-la Hotel and Resorts. Other significant wins include Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway and K11, a property under New World Development Company. During his time, the agency was ranked No.1 Hong Kong Creative Agency by Campaign Brief Asia.
Now, he is back to his roots as Group Executive Creative Director of Ogilvy Malaysia. The latest recognizance to come his way is was a Gold, Silver & Bronze Lion at Cannes 2011. Gavin also lead Ogilvy KL to be awarded Agency Of the Year at Spikes Asia 2011.
He has not seen the evening sun since 1991.
