TBWA Australia has appointed Blake Crosbie as group managing director of TBWA Sydney as its leadership trio of Michael Hogg, Elektra O’Malley and Matt Keon leave the business just over a year after joining, B&T can reveal.
Crosbie, pictured below, leads the +61 business and will continue in this role alongside his new MD remit. He effectively replaces the outgoing managing director Elektra O’Malley.
“Blake is a proven leader with a deep understanding of what makes this agency special,” TBWA Australia CEO Kimberlee Wells told B&T.
“He has helped shape the work and culture of +61 and is the right person to lead the agency forward.”
“This is a team with strong foundations, real ambition and the appetite to keep raising the bar. I’m excited to lead the next chapter and help push the work even further,” Crosbie said about his appointment.
Recently, TBWA Sydney managing partner and chief strategy officer Michael Hogg and chief creative officer Matt Keon resigned, while O’Malley has now left the Disruption agency.
Keon resigned six weeks ago, but has moved into a creative consulting role at the agency until TBWA recruits a new CCO, while Hogg handed in his notice in the past week and officially leaves at the end of June.
Virginia Pracht, currently head of planning at TBWA Melbourne, has been appointed acting chief strategy officer to temporarily fill the strategy void left by Hogg.
“These changes reflect the next phase of the agency’s evolution,” Wells said. “We have strong talent across the business, clear ambition and a firm view of where we’re headed.”
Bradbury hires
The trio were hired by former long-serving TBWA ANZ chief executive and president Paul Bradbury at the start of 2025, who left TBWA in the wake of leadership changes at Omnicom.
At the time Hogg and O’Malley were hired, Bradbury heralded their arrival as “the start of a very exciting chapter”.
Hogg succeed Matt Springate, who moved to London to take up a role at Havas. His role spanned across the TBWA Group, including its communications agencies Eleven, FleishmanHillard, Fabric, and the bespoke teams for Telstra (+61) and Apple (TBWA\Media Arts Lab).
Hogg was previously chief strategy officer at Emotive while O’Malley joined TBWA after a stint in New York, where she was head of account management at Anomaly. She previously worked for TBWA in New York for nearly five years.
Keon has an extensive career in advertising, holding senior creative roles in Australia, the UK and Singapore at agencies including Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, BMF, Fallon London and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Earlier this year head of strategy Josh Taylor-Dadds, who joined the agency at a similar time to the trio, left to join Supermassive, where he is an executive strategy director.
Their departures mark a year of leadership changes at TBWA\Australia. Bradbury, who is now VML ANZ chief executive, was eventually succeeded by Wells.
In January, Darren Borrino joined as group creative lead, a role in which he worked alongside Keon and the leadership team.
Last year TBWA appointed Lucio Ribeiro as chief AI and innovation officer.
Meanwhile over at Omnicom Media, PHD’s chief investment officer Joanna Barnes revealed she has also left the business.
