Tom Donald Joins The Royals Sydney as New Head of Strategy

Tom Donald is moving to The Royals from M&C Saatchi’s design business Re Brand Consulting, where he was head of strategy for the past three years.

Prior to Re, Tom was global innovations director at Beam Suntory where he was a key developer of Roku Gin, a global success story. He also spent time at Droga5 and The Works as planning director, with his work on Canadian Club contributing to “Over Beer?” winning the Grand Effie in 2015.

He ran The Communications Council’s AdSchool Advanced Strategic Planning course in 2019, and loves training and mentoring the next generation of marketers.

Having previously spent 13 years in New York, three years in London, and helped to found and run a family business that was sold to the Economist Group, Tom brings an enormous amount of curiosity and experience to The Royals. He replaces Michaela Futcher, who has moved to Media Arts Lab Singapore in a regional strategist role on Apple.

Says Dan Beaumont, managing partner, The Royals: “Replacing Michaela was always going to be a tough task. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank her for all her hard work and wish her well in taking up her dream role. In Tom we’ve found an awesome human with the right passion, experience and curious nature to take our strategic capabilities to the next level and help us deliver results for our clients. It helps that he’s a good person to be around, which combined with his intellect, makes him the perfect Royal. We’re excited to have him on board.”

Says Tom: “The Royals have everything I look for in an agency: independence, a great culture, no bullshit people, and significant ambition. Their mission to unlock what they call ‘unnatural change’ for clients through a commitment to creativity and effectiveness is very appealing. I’m excited to see what we can create together.”

Donald takes up his new role this week and will work across all business in the Sydney office.