Tribal DDB ECD Dirk Eschenbacher to "step back" from his role

Eschenbacher is to begin courses at the Academy in September and will ease off his responsibilities at Tribal during the length of his studies, he said.

Eschenbacher said that the three-year programme focuses on visual communications and creativity. He will look to work part time in the office for the first few semesters before focusing largely on his thesis ahead of his graduation.

“I’m not quite sure how much time this will consume, I just need to see in the future how much time I can spend on our clients and on studying,” he said. “I might just focus on one client in Beijing. We’re not sure what the arrangement is going to look like, but we’re all happy and I’m happy with DDB and I have no intention of relinquishing my role now.”

The agency could not confirm whether Eschenbacher would retain the titles of ECD and MD of Tribal DDB during the course of his studies, nor could it comment on whether additional creative management would be put in place while Eschenbacher divides his attention between the office and his studies.

According to Eschenbacher’s online profile, he has held the role at Tribal DDB since November 2007, when he joined from OgilvyOne. At Ogilvy, Eschenbacher elevated to the role of regional creative director.

Of his plans following his studies at the Academy, Eschenbacher said he would like to be a lecturer as a creative academic and perhaps write books in an effort to “make sense of Chinese creativity.”

“A huge investment is being put into China to move from a factory to a studio, and go from ‘made in China’ to ‘designed in China’. There is an insignificant amount of creativity in China compared to the West, and that’s going to change over the next 10 years, and I want to be at the forefront of that,” he said.

Eschenbacher has spoken and judged creative events in the past, including at the 2010 Asian Marketing Effectiveness Festival, where he was a judge.