Initiative Australia has announced the appointment of international strategist and former Cannes Young Lions winner Jason Maggs (right in photo) as senior director of strategy.

Maggs is formerly vice president, director of strategy and global good at Initiative New York where, in parallel with his client assignments, he developed a strong career in planning and executing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs for clients and helping to lead marketing strategies for not-for-profit organisations.

He was recently a member of an international task force that secured a passenger jet from Virgin Australia to bring 240 young people from the USA to Sydney for a week of mentoring under the AIME program.

“Many clients are wanting to elevate their CSR programs to be more effective, however they struggle with successfully implementing the changes,” said Initiative Australia chief strategy officer Sam Geer (left in photo).

“Jason is world class in this area and a brilliantly talented strategic mind. His work at Initiative will extend beyond creating industry-leading CSR programs for clients, to inspiring them to drive more cultural and socially-conscious communications through their everyday work and campaign development.”

Maggs added: “There aren’t many industries in the world that have the skills, resources and influence to create solutions to real world problems quite like we do. We have a responsibility to our clients and our community to create change needed in the world, we just have to commit. I look forward to working with our clients and non-profits to help create a fairer world.”