Ben Cooper
Global executive director of AI products
RGA
Australia
Ben Cooper has spent a career at the forefront of branding and advertising, though his work rarely looks like either.
He began studying sculpture and 3D design in the UK before pivoting into CD-ROMs and websites as Head of Digital at OTM in London and Zurich. When the dot-com bubble burst, he left for Australia. That mix of creativity and technology would define what came next.
At The Monkeys, Cooper built the agency's digital capability from scratch, growing the team from one to 30 specialists and creating recognised interactive work, including Klippbok for IKEA and ‘Map My Summer’ for YouTube. At Tricky Jigsaw, which he founded within M&C Saatchi, digital craft took on real-world consequence with Optus ‘Clever Buoy’, the world-first shark detection system that won seven Cannes Lions and a D&AD White Pencil, and NRMA Fireblanket, a bushfire detection network awarded AFR's Top Product Innovation and Top Overall Innovation.
After turning 50, Cooper accelerated rather than consolidated. Through his consultancy Brainstrust, he advised organisations including D&AD, Uber, and Revolver on AI strategy, and led the inaugural D&AD AI & Creativity Report 2025, reaching 12,000-plus industry professionals globally. He has shaped industry understanding of AI and creativity through platforms including SXSW and London's D&AD festival.
Now at RGA, he leads AI product development globally, building systems that embed new capabilities into how organisations work.
TO QUOTE: "He is the person you call when you need a thoughtful perspective on technology and creativity, when you have a challenging brief requiring an innovative solution, when you need to build a product, not just launch a campaign." - Lucinda Barlow, International CMO at Uber
Source: Campaign Asia-Pacific
