whiteGREY Expands Team Following Raft of New Business Wins

Following a period of new business and organic client growth, whiteGREY has expanded its client service and strategy teams across both its Sydney and Melbourne campuses, announcing a raft of new appointments.

The first of the senior hires, Warwick Heathwood, joins the Sydney office as strategy director, returning to the Australian market after a stint in the USA. Prior to joining whiteGREY, Heathwood led experiential and retail strategy at New York based WPP agency SET Creative, where he connected brands like Verizon, Google, Nike, Adidas and Sonos to customers in the physical space. His 20+ year career has also seen him work on a raft of effective and award-winning campaigns at other leading agencies including Argonaut in San Francisco, and TBWA, Leo Burnett, BMF and the Campaign Palace in Australia.

"Warwick brings a breadth of experience to the fold; a global perspective combined with a local point of view, experience ranging from brand work through to experiential and work that has been recognised at the most prestigious effectiveness awards globally. We believe his strategic leadership will add to our mix of specialist practitioners here at whiteGREY as we continue to grow," said Lee Simpson, CEO whiteGREY Australia.

Simpson said in addition to Heathwood's hire, three new group account directors have joined the team including Alice Tschuchnigg in Melbourne and Aarti Suri and Georgie McGarr in Sydney. “This past year has been all about reframing our business, developing our distinct positioning and creating a new model which has led to increasing our scope of services for existing clients plus winning new clients. With this growth comes the ability to attract the best in market, and we are thrilled Warwick, Alice, Aarti and Georgie are joining the business,” he said.

The new GAD team brings an extensive range of technology, creative and digital experience, working on both local and international brands, to their roles, including:

• Technology-based: Suri recently returned to Sydney from London where she spent three years at creative digital agency POSSIBLE, leading the global digital accounts for Bayer, Shell, Matchesfashion.com and Aston Martin. She brings more than 10 years’ experience in CRM, integrated and interactive brand marketing, working across various categories including finance, automotive, in London, Sydney and Mumbai.

• With more than 15 years international and local industry experience across a range of categories including FMCG, Insurance, Automotive, Alcohol and NFP, McGarr brings a proven track record of driving business results across strategy, creative, data, PR and innovation at agencies such as Ogilvy, Saatchi&Saatchi and most recently running Audi at 303 MullenLowe.

• Previously with Saatchi&Saatchi and Droga5 New York, Tschuchnigg joins whiteGREY bringing 13 years experience in New York, London, Sydney and Melbourne working with clients to deliver creatively-driven and effective communications campaigns for such brands as Starbucks, Bacardi, Tiffany & Co, Nestle, Tourism Western Australia, Air Wick, BankWest, Bank of Melbourne and Westpac.

New whiteGREY client wins across both Sydney and Melbourne offices in recent months include: Hawaiian Airlines, Government NSW projects; Powershop and VicSuper, with organic growth from existing clients such as Volvo and Procter & Gamble. whiteGREY is part of WPP AUNZ, Australasia’s leading creative transformation company.