Ben Coulson is to leave Dentsu Creative after 18 months as ANZ chief creative officer, for a new role yet to be announced. Dentsu Creative NZ co-CCO, Brett Colliver, has been promoted to lead Australian as well as New Zealand creative product until a replacement for Coulson is found.

Coulson joined Dentsu Creative in 2023 from Hero, where he had been CCO for three years. Prior to Hero, he was CCO of McCann Sydney and Clemenger BBDO Sydney. He has has held senior creative positions in North America, UK, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia and is ranked among Australia’s most celebrated creative leaders of the past decade. He has been ranked many times in the top ten CCOs in the world by the Advertising Age, The Gunn Report, the WON report, Cannes Lions and D&AD.

Coulson has won both Cannes & D&AD Agency of the year titles, ANZ Network of the Year at Cannes and Spikes three times, and most awarded agency in APAC at the One Show. Additionally, he’s won multiple Grande Prix, Best of Show and Grande Effies, along with several Agency of the Year titles at Campaign Brief, AdNews, B&T & AWARD.

His experience covers many of the regions’ most respected brands such as Tourism Australia, Telstra, Qantas, Toyota, Cadbury, Coke, Frucor Suntory, Burger King, Schweppes, Corona, Carlton United Breweries, AFL, Australian Defence Force, Mastercard, Visa, Menulog, Microsoft, eBay, Unilever, GSK, Monash Uni, Melbourne Uni, Wrigley’s, Cottees, Mars, & Vegemite, and at Dentsu Creative, The Iconoc, L’Oréal, Adobe, American Express and NBN.

Coulson’s departure concludes two weeks of change at the top of several Australian agencies. Justin Graham stepped down as APAC CEO of M+C Saatchi and Dani Bassil was appointed group CEO AUNZ. Last week, Katrina Alvarez-Jarratt leftTBWA\Sydney as ECD after nine years at the agency. Meanwhile overseas, Aussie expat, David Droga stepped down from his role as CEO of Accenture Song, replaced by Ndidi Oteh.