One of three partners at independent agency Joy has left the business, AdNews understands.
Graeme Wills, who was a stakeholder with co-founders and industry adland veterans Simon Rush and Andrew Wynne, is no longer part of the business and has left to set up his own venture.
It's unclear as to why he departed, but AdNews understands he is working with Virgin Australia.
It is thought that Wills is working in partnership with Virgin Australia’s executive creative director (ECD) Michael Dole.
Dole, who says on his LinkedIn page that he was involved in the launch of Sibling, the purpose-built agency established by the STW Group dedicated solely to Westfield, has also worked as a freelance ECD/CD at The Royals and Razorfish.
From Mojo to Joy
Prior to the launch of Joy in 2013, Wills was Publicis Mojo chairman of ANZ for more than 20 years before the agency was retired by its holding company Publicis Groupe.
Following the Mojo closure, Wills teamed up with Rush and Wynne to form the indie, taking on the chairman position while Wynne and Rush became joint CEOs.
Both Rush and Wynne have been in the industry for many years having co-founded indie media shop Razor Group in 2003. Essentially, Joy was borne out of the Razor Group’s creative agency Us Sydney as Joy assumed all responsibility for the client base, staff and offices of Us.
Joy offers up strategy, creative, production and media to provide “the best integrated solution for client's needs”.
Joy, which has clients such as Chartered Accountants ANZ, winning a D&AD yellow pencil for its ‘Cake’ campaign last year, has also worked with the likes of Nike, SBS, Subaru, ARN, Goodman Fielder and H&R Block.
Joy declined to comment and Wills and Dole were not available.
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