I’M A BRAND AND CONTENT CREATIVE, BASED IN THE NETHERLANDS

Over a decade of experience working on global brands and building high impact creative teams 

Ever since I can remember, I had a crayon or pencil in my hand. Even on my first day of school, while the other kids were crying for their mommies, I was chilling in the corner with a stack of blank paper, a fresh pack of Crayola crayons and the focus and determination to draw all the Thundercats character that day.

Throughout my childhood, I would draw comics and then make photocopies at the local library. I would leave a few copies in the printer with a CTA and my home address.

If they wrote to me about my comic I would post part two or three of the story to them. This set the scene for a career in advertising and marketing.

In college I was obsessed with poster design. A static medium that had to engage and communicate it’s proposition to it’s audience in 8 words or less. I would steal the best ones I encounter and collect them as reference. This in turn motivated me to design posters that people too would want to steal too.

Around the year of our lord 2010, digital advertising and social media changed our industry forever, and I pivoted from art direction to digital design and set upon a course to learn everything – even if that meant shadowing people in different disciplines than mine. I learned then that design is nothing other than the study of people.

The best designers are, part-time strategist, part-time researchers and full time pervayors of culture, and I’ve had the priviledge to work with talented strategist, data scientist and operators, which enriched my thinking and enabled me to see the big picture beyond the scope of my role.

The last 18 months I’ve been working as a creative coach, developing creatives into high impact team with emphasis on operational excellence and integration across the business.

For the past 20 years I have had the privilege to work on some of the the best global and boutique brands, but more than that I have grown beyond design to build and lead creative teams. As a leader I’m very proud of the work I’ve created, the accounts that were won and retained, but most importantly taking care and nurturing a creative culture where individuals from all backgrounds came to do the best work of their lives.

GLOBAL BRAND EXPERIENCE

Work Experience

Recruitee, Head of Creative
2021-2023, Amsterdam, Netherlands

  • Spearheaded a global brand refresh that enhanced the company brand, resulting in 20% increase in market visibility and significant growth in the customer base
  • Built a multi-disciplanary, creative department from
scratch that successfully serviced the entire marketing department
  • Contributed and consulted on the company’s Employer Value Proposition and then company-wide roll out

JustEat Takeaway, Design Lead
2020-2021, Amsterdam, Netherlands

  • Collaborated with the performance marketing team to design and deliver an automation tool that increased creative output and efficiency by 50%.
  • Led and mentored the multi-disciplinary, in-house digital creative team
  • Initiated brainstorms and the production of creative assets for quarterly global campaigns

Merkle, Design Director
2018-2019, Breda, Netherlands

  • My proudest moment was winning the ‘social brand indentity’ pitch for the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) through a bold strategy that successfully fostered fan engagement and brand love
  • Spearheaded ideation and creative strategies for “Hub” campaigns and “Hygiene” content for clients
  • Managed and coached a high performance, multi-disciplinary creative team

Your Social, Creative Lead
2016-2018, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  • My proudest moment was co-crafting the creative strategy that landed us the Dolby Cinema account
  • Relaunced Pioneer(MENA) and made it relevant in the region again
  • Supervised and mentored a high performance creative team
  • Drove processes and frameworks that significantly improved the creative output of team

Sekari, Creative Director
2015-2016, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  • Responsible for campaign ideation and ‘always on’ content that showcases our core SEO offering
  • Managed and directed a team of remote freelancers
  • Led creative SEO workshops for clients, prospects and partners

Early Years
2007-2014, Cape Town, South Africa

  • Before moving to the Middle East and Europe I worked in a diverse range of agencies. I got my break as an art director working at The Jupiter Drawing Room where I made lifelong friends. I then went on to work at All Brand No Flakes, a boutique agency where I learned so much about the business of advertising. I then spent a few years at TBWA where I dipped my toes in creative leadership and Disruption methodology  

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