AUCKLAND After six years with DDB Asia-Pacific as chief creative officer, Paul Catmur is returning to the agency where he started his advertising career: Y&R.
Auckland-based Catmur, who served his last day at DDB on December 1, left the agency in search of a new challenge. "I felt I needed a change and they probably needed a change from me as well," he said.
Catmur will take up a new role as Y&R's creative director for Australia and New Zealand.
He is understood to have announced his departure from DBB in a staff email last week and is believed to have thanked his colleagues for their camaraderie and suggested DDB is a great network that needs a push in Asia to really get going.
In another note to DDB staff, he is believed to have said that, despite progress, the agency's creativity is still a long way behind leading networks in Asia Pacific.
Meanwhile, Y&R - for which he worked from 1990 to 1999 - is welcoming Catmur back into the fold.
"It's always good to have some people who understand the big picture and how great work needs to drive an agency forward," said Rowan Chanen, executive creative director for Y&R, Asia-Pacific.
Catmur, who began his career as a craps dealer in London and the Bahamas, starts at Y&R in January.
He was supposed to have joined Y&R Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s but, for various reasons, that never occurred: "I'm just turning up 10 years late," he said.
Catmur joined DDB New Zealand in November 2000 and has been its executive creative director since 2002. He was named to the chief creative officer role for DDB Asia-Pacific last year.
He will also sit on the judging panel for the 2007 Spikes, which take place in Bali, on 25 to 27 April.
Previously, he has been a judge for the Cannes, and Clios, and has been the convenor of judges for Award in Australia and the Axis competition in New Zealand.