TBWA\Sydney Hires CCO: Science, Tech, and Agency Entrepreneur Matt Keon

TBWA\Sydney has hired Matt Keon as chief creative officer, LBB can reveal, rounding out a leadership team comprising newly-appointed managing director Elektra O’Malley and chief strategy officer Michael Hogg.

​LBB revealed Elektra and Michael’s appointments in February, shortly after revealing Matt’s predecessor, Evan Roberts, was leaving the agency to establish his own creative start-up.

Matt has worked for agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore, BMF Australia, and Fallon London on work that has earned him a BAFTA, Guinness World Record, two Paul Arden Awards, and multiple Cannes Lions.

He worked with his new CSO partner, Michael Hogg, at Fallon, when Matt was a creative director and Michael a planner. From Fallon, Matt went on to set up his own agency, while Michael moved back to Sydney and joined The Monkeys for seven years, before heading to Emotive.

Matt launched, scaled, and sold a minority stake in 18 Feet And Rising, which became one of the fastest-growing independent agencies in the UK. He left the business to return to Australia in 2016, and in 2018, the agency became And Rising.

The entrepreneur has co-founded multiple other start-ups, including GenieUs, a business set up to transform the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including motor-neuron disease (ALS), Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s.

In 2023, he co-founded 55mV, a research and development lab which offers machine learning models built for “creativity in a commercial context” to help creators, marketers, and agencies with the ideation process.

Matt’s appointment at TBWA marks a return to a full-time agency role for him. Last year, the agency won Department of Defence, Kraft Heinz, and Goodman Fielder, and launched a highly-praised body of work for Telstra as part of the +61 outfit with Bear Meets Eagle on Fire.

“It has pure creative muscle in its DNA and a world class leadership team driven by Paul [Bradbury, CEO],” Matt said of his decision to join TBWA\Sydney.

“I am especially excited to be reuniting with Michael Hogg from Fallon, who is a strategic sniper at the top of his game, and Elektra O’Malley, who has the most insightful and acute understanding of clients' business I have come across.

“We are aligned, we are in sync and completely focused on what we want to achieve for our clients. Watch this space.”

Paul Bradbury, TBWA’s CEO and president across Australia and New Zealand, added, “Matt is an exceptional creative leader who truly lives at the intersection of creativity, innovation, and science. His CV, folio, and creative vision blew us away.

“Our new leadership team in Sydney is now complete, and we are already underway on several very exciting projects.”

Accompanying Matt is Michael’s first hire as CSO. Josh Taylor Dadds joins from Special New Zealand to become head of strategy. It’s a return to TBWA for Josh, who was strategy director at TBWA\New Zealand before his three year stint at Special.

Matt fills one of two key CCO vacancies in the Australian market. The other is at Omnicom stablemate Clemenger, which is on the hunt for a world-class national CCO following its merger with CHEP Network and Traffik.