Publicis Groupe ANZ has appointed Dave Bowman to the new position of chief creative officer. He was most recently Google’s APAC head of creative.

Bowman has for more than 20 years in creatively-led companies such as Special Group, where he was creative partner for three years; Whybin\TBWA\Tequila, where has executive creative director & regional creative director Asia-Pacific for four-and-a-half years; and Saatchi & Saatchi, where he was creative director for three years. In his five-and-a-half years at Google, Bowman was the APAC head of creative, and also led the company’s Partner Innovation team, of creatives, software engineers, producers and business partners who help to make Google technology accessible, useful and exciting for the 4.8 billion users across the region.

Publicis Groupe chief creative officer for APAC & MEA, Natalie Lam, stated, “I’m thrilled to be working with Dave to elevate the creative product across the Groupe in ANZ. He is a unique, modern creative leader with integrated experience from both the agency and media worlds; as well as having a true understanding of what brand building means in the digital age. I know he’ll bring a fresh approach to creativity in ANZ, as well as actively building an inclusive creative culture that’s connected across our agency brands.”

Publicis Groupe Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer, Michael Rebelo, added, “There are very few people in our industry who have the breadth and level of marketing transformation experience that Dave has – having founded an agency, worked in various markets, and most recently spearheading the creative product of one of the world’s largest digital media platforms.

“This is the exact skillset we have been looking for to continue to take the 20 plus media, creative, tech and digital agencies across our Groupe to the next level.

“Connectivity and creativity – in its many forms – is a key competitive advantage for our clients at Publicis. Dave won’t just be partnering with our creative leaders, but also our media agency teams, digital and CX agencies and client leads to sprinkle the magic far and wide among our talent no matter what discipline and brand they come from. He will be pivotal in creatively bringing together our end-to-end capabilities, fusing compelling storytelling with data, technology and media as we continue to enhance our creative impact across our key connected clients.”

Bowman commences at Publicis Groupe on May 29.