…from the adman behind the article that lit the fires of all three conversations, Nils Leonard, chief creative officer and chairman, Grey UK.

Yesterday, I interviewed Nils Leonard before his D&AD President Lecture in Sydney…

…right in the middle of a social media storm about Leo Burnett’s new creative hire announcement and “six white guys” photograph. (The seventh person in the pic is the ECD.)

I had to get Nils’ comment. The Stable’s story of the launch of Unfkble was next in line to be published.

And whether he chose it or not, Nils has had the idea that “the Perfect Modern Creative Is Fierce, Fearless and Female,” attached to him [Adweek, October 2014].

Below is the view of the creative who advocates long ideas and open culture. The adman who shares the top rung of his agency with three women:

“I think some of the criticisms levelled at that hire are true and some of it is just unfortunate. We do have to think about how we portray our agencies. Genuinely, I want a differently shaped industry. I have this idea of one in my head. I didn’t write that article to make a point about women. I wrote that Adweek article to make a point about the sort of industry I wanted. And when I started it with he, I thought. “that’s not what I’m about.” So I changed it. It became a thing that was obviously very divisive and a lot of people rallied around it.

“Do I think Leo Burnett Sydney could have hired differently? Yes, I do.

“Do I think agencies not girl-strong because of the talent that comes up? In my agency, the CEO, MD and ECD are women. There’s talent I’ve chased for years, women and men. If what comes up all at once happens to be all men, I get them. You’ve then got a choice about how you want to portray that to the world and the sort of company you want to show that you’re building.

“Let’s be really honest. If I look at that hire, it’s half-talented. We all know who’s best in class. When you’re looking to hire best in class, you’re not thinking about sex at that time, you’re thinking about getting the best ECDs around. But that hire – I don’t believe you when you say you’ve hired the best you could. You could have chosen some women. I think you have to think about that. I think every company needs its balance.  We’re not invisible companies in the world. Cindy Gallup has 22,000 followers on Twitter. Agencies have hundreds of thousands. We’re not private. We’re not silent, like these weird invisible advisers we used to be and so we’ve got to think about that stuff because the line-ups of our companies matter in the world. I have no idea what their [Leo Burnett Sydney’s] cultural ambition is. I don’t know what they want to stand for.

“This is the crux of the matter. The people you hire, the people you hold up as the best in class, the people you put out there and say represent you, and that’s what talent is – a badge of what you believe in as an agency – matter greatly. So if you hold your hand up and say I believe these people are the future of our agency, you better make damn sure that’s a mix.”