John Driscoll, Chairman and CEO

John’s formal qualifications include a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, and an MBA. He joined Marketforce as Media Director in February, 1989, after three years with the then Marketforce-associated direct marketing consultancy, JMG.

In his role as Media Director of Marketforce, John contributed to some of the agency’s most spectacular growth years, with media billings through Western Australian operations growing from $29M to $114M.

This growth came from the development of Government media contracts in campaign and non-campaign areas, as well as through the development of Media Decisions, a separate media buying consultancy, now handling the media requirements for a large number of Western Australian agencies and direct clients.

John’s success in growing Marketforce’s media operations was matched by his reputation as a fierce-but-fair media negotiator. However, it was John’s development of strategic media and advertising advice for clients that eventually led his career into the area of client service.

In 1998, John moved from Media to Account Service, assuming direct responsibility for the day-to-day servicing of a group of Marketforce clients, and taking on the role of Group General Manager. In this role, John became Group Managing Director of Marketforce Limited in December 2000 and was appointed Chairman and CEO in January 2005.

John was awarded “Advertising Person of the Year” in February 2004.

Paul Nelson, Group Financial Director

Paul originates from Sydney, where he initially worked in taxation planning and financial management for small business with Mann Judd & Co - Chartered Accountants.

Paul also has extensive experience in commercial accounting in the cosmetics industry, as well as 12 years in the travel industry. Eight of his 12 years in travel were in senior management positions with the Traveland Group - an international travel conglomerate.

His postings within Traveland included Manager - Finance and Administration of the Traveland Australasian retail network of over 250 agencies; Manager - Finance and Administration of the Viva! Holidays global tour operation; and, in 1982, he transferred to Western Australia as General Manager of the Boans/Traveland joint venture travel company.

In 1985, Paul co-founded a Western Australian-based tour wholesaler called Holiday Factory. He later sold his interest in the company to return to Sydney in 1988 as the Manager of the United Travel Agents Group’s Australian wholesale tour operation.

Paul returned to Perth and joined Marketforce in June 1990. He became responsible for the financial administration of the group’s national agency network and affiliated business interests.

Paul was appointed Group Financial Director of Marketforce Limited in 1996.

Howard Read, Director

Howard has been with Marketforce for twenty five years, and was Managing Director of Perth for seven years prior to being appointed Chairman in 1991.

Early in his business career, part-time studies resulted in Howard graduating as a Bachelor of Commerce and an Associate of the Australian Society of Accountants.

During that time, working with MLC, he was transferred from Perth to the marketing department at Head Office, Sydney.

He then joined A.C. Nielsen Market Researchers before returning to Perth in 1970 as Group Marketing Manager for Bond Corporation. There, he was exposed to many diverse activities, from property development, to life and general assurance, to hardware and finance.

While with Bond, Howard was transferred to Melbourne as Managing Director of Universal Flexible Trusts, an associated company of Bond Corporation. UFT were fund managers of 13 equity trusts and four property trusts, which gained Howard valuable experience in finance and investing in a national managed investment company.

Howard joined TVW Enterprises as Group Planning & Development Manager, and a year later was recruited as General Manager of Marketforce prior to becoming Managing Director and later Chairman. In January 2005 Howard retired as Chairman. He remains a Director of Marketforce Limited.

Howard has had wide business experience, and is well versed in Western Australian and Australian marketing and financial trends. His contact with many business and commercial leaders in Perth provides a useful sounding board for strategic issues.

Iain Rowe, Director

After graduating from Glasgow University with an honours degree in Psychology, Iain joined Lever Brothers in London, part of the Unilever group, as a marketing trainee. In his six years with Levers, he progressed through the posts of Promotions Manager and Brand Manager to that of Group Brand Manager.

He then returned to Scotland on his appointment as Marketing Manager of The Scotsman Publications, publishers of “The Scotsman” and “Edinburgh Evening News”. While there he was responsible for the strategic development of both advertising and circulation sales revenues.

Iain joined Hall Advertising in 1976, a part of the Saatchi & Saatchi group and was appointed Deputy Managing Director in 1981. In 1984 he emigrated to Perth, joining JMA Advertising where he was appointed Managing Director in 1987. After the merger of JMA and Ogilvy & Mather, Perth, Iain became Managing Director of JMA Ogilvy & Mather, and contributed to the success of that agency which was voted Agency of the Year for both 1988 and 1989.

In July 1991 Iain joined Marketforce as Client Services Director and was invited to become the Managing Director of Marketforce Advertising in August 1999. During his time with Marketforce, he provided strategic advertising and marketing advice to many of Perth’s major organisations, including Challenge Bank, Tourism WA, Lotterywest and the Health Department of WA.

Iain retired from Marketforce in 2001, however, his relationship with Marketforce continued, providing ongoing consultancy services to the agency and in January 2005, Iain was appointed to the Board of Directors of Marketforce Limited.

He is a past chairman of “Relay for Life”- a major fundraiser for the Cancer Council, and Chairman of the Cerebral Palsy Association of WA.

Hylton Mackley, Director

Hylton is one of Australasia’s advertising legends.

He joined the advertising industry in Wellington, New Zealand in 1960 and by 1969 had founded his own advertising agency, Colenso.

Three years later Hylton formed a strategic partnership with Clemenger Australia, which saw Hylton sell a 20% interest in his company.

In 1974 the opportunity to grow Colenso saw Hylton relocate to Auckland, establishing the second office for Colenso in New Zealand.

Following Clemenger’s purchase of 100% of the New Zealand agency, Hylton transferred to Australia and became Group Finance Director in 1987, a position he holds to this day.

Hylton’s involvement and support of the advertising industry has seen him actively involved in both the Advertising Federation of Australia as well as serving as National President of the New Zealand Advertising Association.

Carrick Robinson, General Manager

Carrick holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Auckland. He began his career in advertising 23 years ago in the production department of a small Perth agency, and spent much of his early career working for Ogilvy & Mather in Perth, Sydney and Auckland.

Whilst at Ogilvy & Mather, Carrick was the youngest Australian to be admitted to the O&M Trainee Executive Program, which saw him complete the highly demanding Account Management Program. At Ogilvy & Mather, Carrick worked in the three major disciplines of mainstream advertising, retail and direct marketing.

During this time, Carrick worked on a variety of national and international brands. In Sydney, these included Woolworths (retail), Volvo (brand and retail) and Kolotex. He also worked on Polaroid in New Zealand and Bunnings in Perth.

Carrick has worked for Marketforce for 11 years and been responsible for a number of high-profile clients, including Kleenheat Gas, The West Australian, Kresta Curtains and Blinds, The Western Australian Tourism Commission, The Office of Road Safety, Cash 3, Hartley Poynton and Scratch ‘n’ Win.

Carrick has been a guest lecturer for the Adschool Strategic Planning Course, Clements School of Management Marketing and Edith Cowan University. He has made numerous advertising and marketing presentations to organisations as diverse as The National Trust, Scotch College and The Rotary Club.

Carrick joined the management board in February 1998. He was appointed Director, Client Services, in April 2001 and became General Manager of Marketforce Advertising in January 2005.

Andrew Tinning, Group Creative Director

After 12 years at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ Andrew was appointed Group Creative Director of Marketforce in February 2004. Andrew’s appointment was the most significant creative appointment in Marketforce’s history and is testament to the agency’s ability to attract the best talent in its senior ranks.

Before crossing the Tasman, Andrew worked on major campaigns for New Zealand's leading brands including United Bank, Telecom, Telecom Mobile, Television New Zealand, Lion Nathan, New Zealand Lotteries and numerous Government and Public service projects.

Andrew has held his spot in the Top 10 on Campaign Brief's Australasian Creative League Table for the past six years and is currently ranked as the fourth most awarded Creative and sixth most awarded Creative Director in the region.

Andrew has eight Cannes Lions to his name including two gold’s, along with a host of other major international and local creative awards including two gold and two silver Clios, a Gold and two Silver Award pencils and multiple finalists at both D&AD and One Show. He also counts numerous effectiveness awards among his overall tally.

His philosophy is a simple one. Great creative work comes from great clients with whom you have great working relationships. He sees the creative process as a highly collaborative one and believes the best ads are the ones that resonate with and influence those they are talking to and that in today’s saturated environment those brands who connect on an emotional level are the ones who have the greatest chance of growth and long term survival.

He is in the business to build strong mutually successful working partnerships, win the hearts and minds of the consumer and pick up the odd award or twenty along the way.

Jane-Pole Bell, Director Strategic Planning

Jane's interest in human behaviour extends back to her university days when she spent two years studying anthropology. The transition into marketing with particular focus on strategy and brand was a logical step - and certainly offered more job opportunities.

Jane brings to Marketforce over 20 years of experience across business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing. She has worked in industries as diverse as Fast Moving Consumer Goods(FMCG), steel, electronics and recruitment, and held senior marketing roles across multiple functions including Strategy, Planning, and Brand. Since being with Marketforce she has worked on the brand repositioning strategy for Summit Homes.

Jane's strong strategic thinking and leadership have been instrumental in successful launches of global FMCG brands in Australia and Oceania. She has also been the key driver in a number of high-risk re-branding exercises, regularly producing a growth in brand share in extremely competitive markets. She has won international recognition for communication cut-through and strategic project implementation.

Her passion for using research to ensure long-term strategic goals are achieved has driven many of her successes. She has won international recognition for communication cut-through and strategic project implementation.

Ric Cairns, Creative Group Head

Ric had been Creative Director of integrated agency The Shorter Group for seven years before joining Marketforce in 2002. As Creative Group Head, and strategic head of Marketforce Design, his cross-discipline background equips him well for communications strategy and creativity, especially in branding programs.

Ric's account experience includes re-branding projects for the City of Swan, the Art Gallery of WA, Home Building Society, WA Opera, GESB, Programmed, LandCorp and St John of God Hospital. He created one of WA's most respected tourism campaigns - 'The Real Thing' - and developed all of Tourism WA's advertising for over four years. He also worked with several of the Regional Tourism Organisations to develop their new brand positionings. His 'destination marketing' experience includes several years on Burswood Resort Casino.

Ric is a two-time winner of the coveted PADC The West Australian Fellowship awarded for excellence in press advertising. He has created the Campaign Brief Print Campaign of the Year (and Finalists in two other years), and he has been a Finalist in Copywriting at the Australasian AWARD Awards. In television, Ric has won Gold at the London International Awards and Silver at the PADC Awards. Among many radio accolades, his 'Special FX' radio for Scitech was a Finalist at the international Cannes Advertising Festival.

In addition to his roles as Group Head at Marketforce, Ric is a lecturer in Copywriting and Creativity for the AFA's AdSchool, and an occasional guest lecturer for Murdoch University, among others. He is a former President of the Perth Advertising & Design Club.

Danny Coleman, Production Director

Based in London for 14 years, Danny held the position of In-House Production Manager at the Admagic Group, one of the UK's leading pre-media facilities servicing a high number of London's major global agencies. The group undertakes account handling, print production, digital artwork, pre-press, creative retouching, TV production and data asset management.

Through Danny's understanding of agency working procedures, he gained significant experience on major accounts for several top London advertising agencies including: JWT London, Mother, Ogilvy & Mather, M&C Saatchi and Euro RSCG.

In April 2002 Danny was responsible for the set up and running of an in-house pre-media facility, comprising artwork studio, creative retouching suite and pre-press department within London's largest agency, J Walter Thompson.

In May 2003, following the success of the JWT Studio, Danny set up a flagship studio within Lowe & Partners London. Due to his all-round expertise in the different areas of the industry, Danny headed up the process of introduction and integration.

In October 2004 he immigrated with his young family to Perth and was appointed Internal Production Manager at MJB&&B. The merger with Marketforce's Redline in 2006 saw Danny became the new Marketforce Retail's Production Manager. In July 2008 he was placed on the Marketforce Retail Board.

Danny transferred to Marketforce Communications in July 2009 where he was appointed to the position of Director, Production Facilities.

Kiaran Geen, Media Director

Kiaran is a graduate of the Edith Cowan Business School majoring in Marketing and Management. In addition to his Bachelor of Business he has also completed a 1 year Honours Degree in Internet Marketing. He received a 1st Class Distinction in this degree. He commenced his employment at Marketforce nine years ago as a junior media buyer and evolved to become a highly regarded and talented media specialist in a leading position with Marketforce Media.

Kiaran has a great passion for, and knowledge of, digital media utilising his extensive experience with campaigns requiring the integration of new and emerging media. For example, Lotterywest, Office of Road Safety and Network 10 required the use of media that engage with consumers, and for those clients has used digital media including Online display, SMS, VLOGS, Video Streaming, and digital outdoor.

In his role as Media Director Kiaran has also had a supervisory role for all clients within the agency.

Kiaran's experience is not limited to Perth, he has planned and purchased major national campaigns for his clients Brownes Dairy, Westnet and Tourism WA. Responding to a client brief for Brownes Kiaran developed a channel plan for the national product launch of the new Junior Milk and also relaunched the national Connoisseur campaigns for both Connoisseur Ice-cream and Connoisseur Yoghurt. These campaigns employed the use of many different media channels including TV, both Free to Air and Pay, major magazines, press and targeted outdoor. For these two campaigns Kiaran was able to add significant additional media exposure, at no charge, to increase the overall campaign exposure. This added value reached just over $2,000,000 dollars.