Wes Hawes has left 72andSunny after joining as CCO in January 2025. He will be replaced by ECD, Nic Buckingham, who will be based in Sydney and will joins the leadership team with managing director, Sophie Sykes, and executive strategy director, Alexandra Nel .

Buckingham was group creative director for David&Goliath in Los Angeles before moving to Melbourne in December 2020 and freelancing with a one year stint as creative director at Thinkerbell, 2021-2. In The Us, he also worked at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA and Crispin ort + Bogusky Colorado. Buckingham began his career in Australia as an art director at Saatchi & Saatchi, The Campaign Palace and Clemenger BBDO.

He has worked with Ryan Reynolds, with LeBron James for Intel and Taika Waititi for Carlton Dry. He took on gender imbalance with the 2% Choir for The Grammys and has built a portfolio of work showing executional craft and a deep instinct for what earns attention.

In the announcement, Justine Armour, international CCO, stated, “Sydney is an important market for us, and we have incredible momentum right now. We have a clear ambition to keep raising the bar on the kind of work we’re doing in the region, and Nic is the perfect person to help us take it to the next level.

“Nic brings a rare combination of cultural instinct, global experience and hands-on craft. He creates work that people choose to engage with, that travels, and that drives real impact for clients. That’s the standard we’re continuing to build on in Sydney.”

“There’s something ready to happen at 72andSunny Sydney, and I wanted to be the one to help make it happen,” Buckingham added. “Too much advertising disappears the moment it runs. I’m here because I don’t think it has to. 72andSunny has always known how to make work that plants itself in culture and I want to bring that to this market with the craft and ambition it deserves.”