HAVAS has named Richard Clarke as its newly minted chief growth and client officer in Australia.
Clarke has relocated from HAVAS UK where he spent over four years at HAVAS Red, most recently as managing director for HAVAS Red London. He was responsible for running the London office and focusing on growth targets that saw the agency triple in size. Prior to this, he was a senior partner at Ogilvy UK.
As chief growth and client officer, Richard will work closely with the HAVAS Australia leadership team on cross-Village growth, new business, and incubating new service-based propositions. Reporting to James Wright, group CEO, HAVAS creative network ANZ and global chair, HAVAS PR network, he will also work closely with Village client teams to continue to deliver client service excellence
“I am delighted and privileged to have been given the opportunity to move within HAVAS to Australia. We have a world-class roster of agencies, talent, clients, and opportunity, and I am already blown away by the incredible energy and ambition there is within the HAVAS Village Australia,” said Clarke.
Richard brings with him a wealth of integrated marcomms experience across luxury, retail, travel, consumer tech, FMCG, and not-for-profit sectors.
His career milestones include managing the NHS ‘Missing Type’ blood donation campaign, named “Campaign of the Decade” by PRWeek, as well as seeing HAVAS Red being awarded EMEA Regional Midsize Agency of the Year earlier this year.
“I am looking forward to working with outstanding leaders like James and the senior management teams and forging the next chapter of growth for the Group,” added Clarke.
“Richard did an unprecedented job growing the HAVAS Red UK business during his time there, as well as building phenomenal relationships with creative, media, digital and health teams across the HAVAS Village in London. He is an excellent operator, brilliant with clients and naturally brings agencies and teams together,” said Wright.
“Having him in this newly created position in Australia will ensure we are even better set up to service cross-agency clients and grow”.
