Creative Partner, Ford, Ogilvy Advertising London

Greg was born in Johannesburg in 1956, and educated in Port Elizabeth at Pearson High School. He spent 30 years in the South African advertising industry, almost all of them at Ogilvy/RS-TM. He started his career in advertising at McCann Erickson in Port Elizabeth, working on General Motors and Goodyear and was transferred to their Cape Town office in 1979. Soon thereafter he joined Rightford Searle-Tripp & Makin where, apart from a short stint at Campbell Ewald in 1982, he has remained.

He is probably best known for his work on Volkswagen over the years, for which he has won numerous local and international awards including Cannes Gold, Silver and Bronze, 8 Loerie Grand Prix, and many others. He also has 2 commercials, (VW logo and VW Right Stuff) in the top ten of the 100 most loved South African commercials of all time.

Greg also conceived the famous David Kramer campaign for VW Bus and wrote and nurtured it throughout its 15 year history.

His other work of note over the years includes Carling Black Label, BP, Shell, WWF, Old Mutual, NSRI, Woolworths, Winston, Castrol, Car Magazine and M-Web, Jungle Oats, All Gold, and Car Magazine.

Greg joined the board of Ogilvy Cape Town in 1986 and the Holding Board of Ogilvy South Africa in 1999. In 2000 he and Mark Fisher became joint Executive Creative Directors of Ogilvy Cape Town, where together with MD Mike Abel they have led a creative and new business resurgence, restoring Ogilvy Cape Town to the top.

Recent highlights include the VW Polo launch campaign, Cannes awards for Volkswagen Mastercars and Golf Estate, the custodianship of a 12 year Carling Black Label campaign that has led the brand to dominance, the controversial yet highly successful Mad about Oil campaign for Castrol, and helping to regularly steer Ogilvy South Africa to a top three creative position amongst over 150 Ogilvy offices worldwide.

Greg is a self-confessed sports addict, finding it hard to choose between football, cricket, golf and rugby. His other interests include music and reading. He is married to Alison and has two daughters.

In August 2005, Greg moved to London to become creative partner with responsibility for O&M London’s Ford business.