TBWA\Sydney Team Members

Neil Lawrence is one of Australia?s most respected, and awarded, creative talents.Prior to establishing Whybin Lawrence TBWA in February 1997, Lawrence was Vice-Chairman and Regional Creative Director at Young & Rubicam Australasia.Prior to establishing Whybin Lawrence TBWA in February 1997, Lawrence was Vice-Chairman and Regional Creative Director at Young & Rubicam Australasia.During his time at Y&R, the Sydney office was twice voted Agency of the Year and won a record number of creative awards. Billings grew from $18 million to over $100 million dollars during his tenure. Neil launched his advertising career in Melbourne after graduating from Melbourne University with a BA in Psychology and Politics and a post graduate degree in Social work. He spent a number of years in Asia as Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Singapore, producing internationally accliamed work for clients including BMW, American Express, Rolex, Finnair and Lever Bros before moving to Adelaide with Y&R in 1989 where he developed the widely recognised ?Please Consider? campaign for Mitsubishi Motors. He has been voted by BRW magazine as one of the country?s top five Creative Directors for the past five years.Neil is a regular on industry award judging panels having been Chairman of Judges at ATV and in 1998 judged both the Hong Kong and Irish International Awards

After a degree in Marine Biology and a year travelling, John made the obvious choice to enter a career in advertising.His began in London spending five years at J Walter Thompson and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. he moved to Australia 12 years ago and has made major contributions to Ogilvy and Mather, Campaign Palace and MOJO where he was National Media Director and Managing Director of Optimedia. Whilst enjoying the cut and thrust of a large billing media independent he feels more at home in a full service creative environment where his mix of art and science in media can contribute more directly to the creative communication process. John joined Whybin Lawrence TBWA in 1997 as a founding partner and became Managing Director in August 2000.

Paul began his career with Ogilvy & Mather Direct in Sydney where he developed and ran major above and below the line campaigns for clients including American Express, Toyota, Hutchison Telecoms, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Johnson & Johnson, Unifoods and Phillips.During 1995-96, along with a group of like-minded partners, Paul established and managed a successful interactive digital marketing agency with offices initially in London and Kuala Lumpur. The company?s focus was on the development of on-line digital marketing tools such as Internet sites and CD-ROMS etc, and most importantly the integration of these tools into the overall marketing mix and varying communication channels. After more than six years in Europe (and the sale of the company!), Paul returned to Australia. He was appointed as Integrated Business Development Director at Leo Burnett.During this time, Paul built the ?non-traditional? discipline resources (from practically scratch) within Leo Burnett including Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Digital & Interactive so that a true integrated, solution neutral approach could be taken. Paul joined WLTBWA as Digital and Relationship Marketing Director and became Managing Director of Tequila\Sydney.

Paul began working life as a qualitative researcher after taking a degree in psychology at Cambridge University. He moved across to strategic planning in 1979, working at both Ogilvy and Mather and J. Walter Thompson in London. At JWT, he became a Planning Director responsible for brands such as Oxo, St Ivel, Philips and Esso, and also held European and global roles on Unilever and Nestle business. In 1994, Paul moved to Australia as Planning Director of The Campaign Palace Sydney, where he contributed to the agency?s considerable growth over the next four years, including work on AMLC, Daewoo, Simpson, Fuji, DHL, Westpac and News Ltd. He then left to set up his own business as researcher and consultant to several Sydney agencies, including WLTBWA. In February 2000, he joined WLTBWA full time as Planning Director.

Paul graduated from Leicester University in the UK with degrees in Business Administration, Economics and Law. He kicked off his media career at Booth Lockett Makin a London based media independent as a planner / buyer, then Deputy Media Manager working on Thomas Cook, Hertz, GAN, and The Welsh Development Agency. Paul, subsequently, worked for Leo Burnett & Starcom Worldwide for 5 years. For the first three and a half, Paul was Regional Media Manager & Media Group Head at Leo Burnett in Sydney. Under Paul's supervision Leo Burnett Sydney won the Leo Burnett North Star Global Award for Media Innovation in 1998. In 1999 Paul transferred back to the UK within the network as Regional Media Director (Europe, Middle East & Africa) heading up the Procter & Gamble account for Starcom in the region. Longing for some interaction with clients at a level more upstream than just media buying took Paul to M&C Saatchi. There, Paul was primarily responsible for the development and implementation of the Global Media Strategy for British Airways and the oneworld Alliance. Paul joined WLTBWA in January 2001 after a courtship lasting two and a half years. Paul passionately believes that the best communications solution is one with simplicity at its core: understanding the business task in hand; the audience it is required to reach; the vehicles which can be most effectively used to reach them; and the tactics in those mediums which will best elevate and sell our clients brands and products.

Had his father accepted a job on the Wollongong coalface Ian would have been an Australian and things may have turned out different but as it was, after completing a BA (Hons) degree in Communications and Media, Ian began his career at Saatchi & Saatchi, London in 1984. Four years later he moved on to become a creative group head at Ogilvy & Mather. Clock wipe to 1995, Australia is on the agenda again and this time the job offer is accepted. Two years at Euro RSCG and a couple of years as a freelance creative consultant act as lead up to Ian being appointed deputy creative director at Whybin Lawrence TBWA in October 2000.

John Minty completed schooling at Newington college and then undertook 5 yrs part timestudy achieving his Bachelor of Commerce (B.com) degree at Macquarie University at night.During this study time John also began his career at Clemenger Advertising. He worked there 4 yrs and moved up through ranks leaving as an assistant accountant.He then moved over to Mojo (Publicis Communications) for 2 yrs when he undertook the role of Group Accountant. Continuing with his career in the financial side of the advertising world, John then joined Whybin Lawrence TBWA as our Finance Manager.During the last couple of years John has continued studying and recently achieved his certificate of Certified Practicing Accountants (cPA). John ensures all the financial matters side of our business run smoothly as well as being the agency?s leading supporter of St.George Football club John also has the added responsibility of ensuring the Agency?s internal footy tipping com runs smoothly.

Justin joined the agency in 2002 as Group Business Director. His path to the door of Whybin Lawrence has been by no means traditional.A lawyer by training, Justin took a ?year off? in 1995 and applied for an AFA Traineeship. Taken on my Lintas Sydney, Justin spent nine months working his way around the agency gaining experience in every department. On his travels through the agency, he worked on the launch of several new products, gained valuable FMCG experience on clients such as Lever Rexona, Streets and Unilever, and even wrote a TVC for the Impulse range of personal fragrances. In the year following the completion of the traineeship, Justin worked as a Senior Account Manager on MasterCard ? launching the worlds first stored value smart card product. Additional experience was gained on clients including the Commonwealth Bank and Johnson & Johnson.From Lintas, Justin moved to John Bevins where he gained invaluable experience working on one of Australia?s leading Funds Management Brands, Bankers Trust. His portfolio then expanded to include French car maker Peugeot, and then the mammoth task of all communications for The Olympic Roads and Transport Authority (ORTA) and Sydney 2000 in the lead-up to the ?Best Games ever.?Moving to Sydney agency, Love, Justin then continued his interests in financial services working on E*Trade before taking on responsibility for the strategic and creative development of the Agency?s main account, Tourism Tasmania.At Whybin Lawrence TBWA, Justin?s core focus is the management of the St.George Bank business, supplemented by his responsibilities on the management team. When not at work, Justin loves nothing better than lounging in Centennial Park with his wife Julie and son Xavier.