The Monkeys Melbourne leadership trio departs
The chief executive, chief creative, and chief strategy officers of Accenture Song’s The Monkeys Melbourne are departing the agency after seven years.
Paul McMillan, Ant Keogh, and Michael Derepas are leaving to launch their own independent agency, per LBB.
A spokesperson for The Monkeys confirmed the news to Mumbrella, and said: “…We wish them all the best for their future endeavours.”
McMillan started at Clemenger in 2006 as a client services director before becoming managing partner in 2011, then managing director in 2014. Derepas was the planning director at Clemenger for over 11 years, having joined the agency in 2005.
Keogh also had a long tenure at Clemenger, spending over a decade at the agency.
(L-R): CEO Paul McMillan, CCO Ant Keogh, CSO Michael Derepas
In 2017, the trio all left the agency – Keogh in July, and McMillan and Derepas in August. Just months later, they joined The Monkeys Melbourne to head up operations following Accenture’s purchase of the agency.
“I take pride in creating real work that real people see, and if that work wins awards, well that’s a bonus,” Keogh said at the time.
“It’s why I’ve always admired The Monkeys’ ability to get people out there in the real world talking about their work.”
Their departures come during a period of transition for Accenture Song, as it prepares to fold The Monkeys in under the Droga5 umbrella from December 1.
Mark Green, co-founder and CEO of The Monkeys, and Accenture Song – Australia and New Zealand lead has moved to New York to take on the global CEO role with Droga5, succeeding Sarah Thompson, while Droga5 founder David Droga will continue on as the global CEO of Accenture Song.
Bronwyn van der Merwe and Matt Michael have been appointed to replace Green across Accenture Song, and Droga5, respectively.
Accenture Song is also making movements on the media side, having raided Initiative earlier this year, nabbing its leadership team of Melissa Fein, Chris Colter, and Sam Geer to head up a new media division.
“Media is a growth area globally for Accenture Song and we are seeing momentum in our end-to-end media offerings in all regions,” Green said at the time. “These appointments serve to extend our footprint into this market that will improve our ability to service the region.”
On a recent episode of the Mumbrellacast, Michael – who is the current managing director of The Monkeys – said the entire team is committed to growth.
“I’d say the gauntlet has been thrown down to try to do bigger and better and more than what we’ve ever done,” he said.
“It’s a super exciting thing to take on such a prestigious name, but it’s also an opportunity to drive further and lift it to another level. And that’s really what I’m going to be focusing on is how do I keep taking it further and doing great things?”
Listen to the full episode with Michael here.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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topics
Accenture Song
Ant Keogh
creative
creative agency
Droga5
Mark green
Michael Derepas
Paul McMillan
The Monkeys
The Monkeys Melbourne
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