Former Clems CCO Stephen de Wolf joins DDB
Former Clemenger BBDO Melbourne chief creative officer, Stephen de Wolf has re-emerged in the Australian industry at fellow Omnicom agency, DDB.
De Wolff will be national chief creative officer at DDB Australia, after returning from London earlier this year, where he spent just over a year at creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH). He is replacing Ben Welsh, who stepped down at the end of August.
Stephen de Wolf
On his appointment, de Wolf said: “I am humbled by the opportunity to be joining the DDB team. We’re only as good as our people and clients, and when I look at the brilliant people and the incredible clients, I know I’m extremely lucky to have landed here. I can’t wait to start working with everyone who makes DDB the place it is.”
During his stint at BBH, de Wolf worked with clients including supermarket chain Tesco, financial institution Barclays, Burger King and Justice4Grenfell. It was reported that he left the UK agency due to family reasons, with BBH CEO Karen Martin noting de Wolf was “just getting started”.
His appointment was the first time in BBH London’s 38 year history that it hired externally for the CCO role.
Prior to this, he spent 6 years at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, and was responsible for work including Transport Accident Commission’s ‘Meet Graham‘, which won 29 Lions including eight Gold Lions at the Cannes Lions; Snickers’ ‘Hungerithm’; Airbnb’s ‘Until We Belong’; and Myer’s ‘Naughty or Nice Baubles’.
DDB Australia and New Zealand CEO and president, Andrew Little, said: “Wolf[ie] is a one-in-a-million creative talent, and more importantly, a brilliant person. We are lucky to have him on board to continue DDB’s recent legacy of creating agenda-setting and attention-grabbing work for famous clients. We can’t wait for him to get started.”
De Wolf was hired as a creative director, by Clemenger in 2014, before being appointed executive creative director of the agency in 2017, along with Evan Roberts. in 2019, he was then promoted to chief creative officer.
Prior to joining Clemenger BBDO, de Wolf was creative director at 18 Feet & Rising (now known as And Rising) in London. He has also spent time at JWT and Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney.
Last month, DDB Group appointed David Jackson as the digital agency’s first national executive creative director. It was an internal promotion, moving across from creative agency DDB Sydney.
De Wolf will start in October.
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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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