Droga5's Global CEO, Mark Green, Has Died at 53

Mark Green, the global chief executive of Droga5 and co-founder of the agency that became it, died of a sudden heart attack in New York over the weekend. He was 53.

Green co-founded The Monkeys in Sydney in 2006 alongside Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, built it into B&T's Agency of the Decade by 2019, and watched Accenture buy it in 2017 without ever letting the work go soft. Two years ago the agency was rebranded Droga5, and Green relocated to New York to run the whole global network, which went on to win Ad Age's Network of the Year for the first time in its history under his watch.

His creative fingerprints are on some of the more quietly significant work of the last decade: the "Lamb Ads" for Meat & Livestock Australia, the Cannes Lion-winning "Play It Safe" for the Sydney Opera House, and Tuvalu's "First Digital Nation" campaign, which turned a sinking island nation's survival plan into a piece of advertising that actually mattered. He also chaired the Advertising Council Australia, a volunteer post he reportedly took as seriously as any client account.

Accenture called the death "sudden and unexpected" and said Green was "a trusted mentor and friend to many." Michael Rebelo, who worked alongside him early in his career at Saatchi & Saatchi and later chaired the ACA with him, put it more simply: "He was an exceptional leader, with strong business instincts and real creative bravery." He is survived by his wife, Rachel, and their two teenage children, Ari and Gisele.

Source: B&T

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →