I've had the privilege of working with some of the best in the business. For a full list of referees, please get in touch.
“I worked with Anne at dentsu in my role as Managing Director, Dentsu Creative. We hired her to lead our creative transformation as we rebuilt Dentsu Creative from the very challenging position it found itself in at the end of 2021. We were impressed by her hands-on experience of taking her previous agency, YoungShand, from being a digital agency to a fully integrated creative agency over the previous four years.
I was delighted to welcome her to the team. Anne is a formidable creative leader. Commercial and strategic, client and team-focused, she strives for excellence but also does the consistent hard work any leader should to coach, manage, support and champion her teams. She is committed and candid in her style, entirely focused on getting things done and improving standards. She knows how to build a creative business. Refreshingly, she has no time for politics.”
MURRAY STREETS
Former MD, Dentsu creative
Principal & Founder, filament
“I had the privilege of working alongside Anne in my position as Head of Digital Experience at Dentsu Creative. Anne has pulling power, as is evident by the creative team she built up, and she's one of the reasons I joined the agency, having long been an admirer of her body of work.
Working with Anne, you soon realise she has qualities that are surprisingly uncommon in our industry. With Anne, there's no ego, no creative exclusion. Instead, you have a creative leader who is strategic and insightful, inspiring yet demanding, encouraging and collaborative, welcoming and respectful of all disciplines and points of view in a modern agency. Anne cares about people as much as she does the work; it's no wonder so many people want to be mentored by her!
Anne is one of the few creative leaders I've worked with who is genuinely comfortable with Digital, and I enjoyed pursuing new business opportunities with her.”
IAN HULME
HEAD OF DIGITAL EXPERIENCE, DENSTU CREATIVE
“Anne is one of the good ones. Like all great creative people, she has the capacity to think strategically as much as executionally, and the body of work Anne’s produced throughout her career is a testament to her ability to do both. Always insightful and with a passion for innovation, over the years, she has also developed into a seriously impressive creative leader.”
RICH MADDOCKS
PARTNER & CCO, BASTION SHINE
“An insightful human. A sharp thinker. A talented leader. A strong woman with a heart of gold. Anne is one of the BEST. A gem we’re lucky to have in our industry.”
Brigid Alkema
CCO, Clemenger BBDO Wellington
“What I admire the most about Anne is her brilliant creativity, business sense, and leadership skills. Anne's creative direction is decisive and she is a wonderful mentor to junior staff. A stickler for process, she makes sure creative quality is maintained.”
Regan Grafton
Chief Tinker (CCO) & Co Founder, Thinkerbell NZ
“Anne and I worked together for three years while she was employed at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand as Creative Group Head.
I liked Anne from the moment I met her and set about making it my business to convince her to join us. It was clear that she was smart, insightful and a talent with a unique and passionate view of what great work should look like.
Anne joined us very early in my tenure as CEO - just as we began to work on the reinvention of the agency. It certainly wasn’t always an easy journey, in fact, it was often extremely challenging, but it was made better for the fact that Anne was with us. She maintained her support and belief in where we could take our agency and played a big part in helping us evolve and re-energise the culture.
Beyond her talent as a writer (and strategic thinker), Anne is a wonderful mentor to young teams in the business. They thrive under her guidance and leadership. Likewise, Anne formed very tight and effective partnerships with strategists and account leaders and patiently guided some of the more junior account people along the way.
So if you are considering working with Anne, you should. You won't regret it.”