Cummins & Partners names Kirsty Muddle CEO, replacing Chris Jeffares
Independent agency Cummins & Partners has appointed Kirsty Muddle as its next Australian CEO.
A founding partner and current managing director of the Sydney office, Muddle replaces Chris Jeffares, who stepped down from the role full-time earlier this year, to focus on his family brewing business.
Following the appointment, chief creative officer and Global CEO Sean Cummins, has indicated that further changes will be made to the agency, in order to steer it towards a purpose built model for the next ten years.
He said: “Kirsty is in the best position of any of us to see what the future of our agency and what the industry will be. We have always been an agency built for modern marketing and we will continue to be with Kirsty and our new management team steering the agency.”
CEO Kirsty Muddle
Muddle is one of the group of remaining founders partners of the agency, along with: Cummins, Steven Tortosa, Faye Collay and Michelle Wensor.
The agency celebrated ten years in operation earlier this year, operating across Melbourne, Sydney and its New York site, which the agency said continues to grow under Australian Olivia Santilli, who operates as partner.
Andy Copeland, who joined the agency three weeks ago as chief data and technology officer, will work alongside Mark Hooke as chief financial officer and Sean Cummins remains as global chief creative officer.
Matt Rose has been promoted to GM in the Melbourne office.
On her appointment, Muddle said: “We’ve spent two years incubating, watching the world change and working on how we change with it. But for us, it’s not about changing into something different, it’s about getting back to what we’ve always been about – independent thinking. We’re bringing that entrepreneurial energy back into everything we do.”
“We have a not-so-secret weapon in Sean Cummins who works hands-on as creative strategist with 37 years of wisdom that remains relevant and fresh today, continuing as chief creative officer across all 3 offices.”
Jeffares, who was reported in January to be splitting his time between the agency and brewery Stomping Ground, indicated at the time to Mumbrella he would be continuing as “director and founder of the agency”.
The agency said in the latest announcement that Jeffares remains a “close friend and advisor to the agency”.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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