Former McCann boss Ash Farr ventures into AI
Ash Farr, former McCann Australia CEO, has landed at Australian-founded agentic AI company Decidr as its new global chief marketing officer and American president.
Decidr was founded in Australia by former Pureprofile founder Paul Chan, and describes itself as the only pure play AI company on the ASX. It currently has a market cap of $69 million.
Announced to the ASX this week, Farr has started work immediately, with a strong focus on the launch of Decidr America in FY26. He will help push the company to commercially scale and expand globally.
Ash Farr
Decidr’s website says it builds AI agents capable of integrating with existing business systems: “It’s a complete, connected platform where intelligent apps handle tasks across every business function.”
Farr joins Decidr with 25 years of experience in marketing and executive leadership. Farr spent nearly five years as McCann Australia’s CEO, before moving to New York in 2016. He spent the better part of a decade with McCann New York and McCann Worldgroup, where he led brands including Microsoft, Mazda, and Verizon. In 2023, Farr left McCann for a global role at WPP.
In his new role, he will lead the AI company’s global marketing strategy and brand positioning efforts, while spearheading the US launch.
He said he was drawn to the role by the “tectonic shift” Decidr will enable.
“The vision for Decidr isn’t incemental. It’s radical,” he said in the ASX announcement.
“This isn’t another AI agent company. It’s the beginning of a new operating system for ambition. For companies, it brings clarity and velocity. For individuals, it will restore agency. And for communities, it will deliver something rare in AI: distributed power.
“This is not evolution. It’s a bold deliberate reorientation of the status quo by design,” he said. “The opportunity to be part of this and help navigate this change, was something I had to be part of.”
David Brudenell, executive chairman of Decidr, said Farr has “proven ability” of delivering market-leading strategies. This, combined with his understanding and experience in brand marketing, will be “instrumental” to the company’s US launch.
“His appointment as both CMO and president of Decidr America marks an exciting milestone in our journey towards global expansion and sustained growth.”
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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