Highly awarded executive creative director, Vince Lagana, has joined The Monkeys and will start in June.

The Monkeys co-founder and group chief creative officer, Justin Drape, commented, “Vinnie’s a talented leader and a true gentleman. He makes the people around him better so he will be an integral part of our plans moving forward and Scott Nowell, Mark Green and I are all looking forward to working with him again, having done so many moons ago before starting The Monkeys.”

Lagana had been co-ECD at Leo Burnett Sydney since September 2014 and creative director and hear of art at Leo B Sydney for the six years prior to that. He helped to create the globally awarded Coke Small World Machines, Bundaberg Rum’s Road to Recovery, and Samsung’s S-Drive, LifeLIVE, BrainBAND and Pocket Patrol initiatives, and has been ranked by The One Club as one of the top ten creative directors in the world

He has also been an associate creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco and was creative group head at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney for 11 ½ years earlier in his career.

Lagana commented, “It’s time for me to follow a fresh path and I’m excited to be joining one of the best and most progressive advertising brands in the country. I have a huge amount of respect for what The Monkeys has achieved and I can’t wait to help lead and drive its creative product even further into the future.”

His work for brands such as Coca-Cola, Diageo, Lion Nathan, Toyota, Canon, Sony, WWF and Samsung has won hundreds of awards, including more than 40 Cannes Lions and several D&AD Pencils. During his time at Leo Burnett, the agency was ranked in the top 10 creative companies in the world, twice by the Gunn Report, and last year, was named AFR’s 4th Most Innovative Company in Australia.

“I’m incredibly grateful for my time at Leo Burnett,” Lagana stated. “The culture and people are what makes the place truly unique and the support I’ve been shown over the years from Mark Tutssel and the Australian management team has helped me grow as a creative leader. I leave Leo’s knowing the future is bright and under the creative leadership of Grant McAloon, the agency will continue to thrive.”

Melinda Geertz, chief executive officer of Leo Burnett Australia, added, “Vinnie has been with Leo Burnett for six years, and in that time, he’s been prolific, helping us create some of our most award-winning, world class work.  We’re grateful for his love of creativity, his passion for brilliant ideas and his incredible dedication to design and craft. We’re also grateful for his friendship. Vinnie is a person with decency, generosity and kindness in abundance, and we’ll miss him. All of us at Leo Burnett wish him the very best.”