Matt Eastwood has become global chief creative officer of McCann Health. The Australian ex-pat left his role as worldwide chief creative officer of J.Walter Thompson in March last year. Eastwood replaces Jeremy Perrott, who was fired in July last year, due to a code of conduct violation. McCann Health currently includes 60 offices in 20 countries.

Eastwood’s career has been spent in top ranking creative agencies such as M&C Saatchi, where he was executive creative director in both Melbourne and London (1996-2004), Y&R New York, where he was chief creative officer until 2006, DDB New York, where he was vice chairman and national creative director until 2010 when he became chief creative officer until he joined J.Walter Thompson in 2014. With Eastwood as its creative lead, J Walter Thompson moved from #15 in the Gunn Report ranking to #7 for both 2016 and 2017, and from the 14th most awarded network at Cannes to 7th. It won 80 Lions and 122 Shortlist at Cannes Lions in 2016, the greatest haul in the agency’s 152-year history. It was the 2nd most awarded network at D&AD last year, Network for the Year at Dubai Lynx, Health Network of the Year at Clio and 5th most awarded network overall in 2016.

Eastwood commented, “I’ve been impressed for some time with the creative renaissance that [global creative chairman] Rob Reilly and his teams have brought to all of McCann Worldgroup.

“And like many in the business, I’ve been especially aware of some of the outstanding and meaningful creative work that McCann Health, in particular, has been doing around the world befitting their reputation as one of the world’s most awarded global healthcare communications companies. I am so pleased to be joining this winning team.”

John Cahill, global chief executive officer of McCann Health, added, “Our health, wellness, and pharma clients across the board are increasingly looking at a changing landscape in which Matt’s broad background and sterling creative reputation will be of great relevance and value,” said John Cahill, global chief executive officer of McCann Health.

“The challenges and opportunities they are facing are consistent with those running across all of marketing, including the more empowered health consumer, the evolving health delivery system, and the growing influence of data-led marketing.”