BIOGRAPHY
Johnny started his career in 1997 after graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. He cut his teeth at BBDO New York where he began a career creating award-winning work.
In 2003, he was recruited by Y&R New York as Creative director/Vice President, and was tasked to upgrade the creative profile of the agency.
In a short span of 2 years, he helped the agency win multi-million dollar accounts like Burger King and Toys ‘R’ Us, and also won awards for his work on campaigns for Diet Dr Pepper, Jaguar and Toys ‘R’ Us. He was also an integral part of the creative council who spearheaded New York’s bid for the 2012 Olympics.
In 2005, he made a move to Asia and assumed the position of Executive Creative Director at BBDO China. There, he ran the Beijing and Shanghai offices where he produced award-winning work for brands such as Pepsi, 7UP, GE and Visa.
In 2006, Johnny became Executive Creative Director and a founding member of BBH China. During his tenure, he was promoted to Chief Creative Officer and also help co-found Black Sheep Studios (an agile production company of BBH) as well as Black Sheep Design (another design company affiliated with BBH). He stayed in this role for 11 years before moving on to his next venture in 2017.
In May 2017, Johnny became a founding member and Executive Creative Director of 72andSunny Asia Pacific where he ran both the Sydney and Singapore offices; leading brands like Google, eBay, Grab, GIC, Carousell, airasia, OPTUS, adidas, Johnnie Walker and Bud Light.
After 5 years building 2 successful agencies in Asia, Johnny was hand picked by David Droga as Chief Creative Officer to help spearhead Accenture Song’s creative expansion into South East Asia.
In the spate of his advertising career, Johnny has won more than 200 awards at nearly every international and regional creative award show including CLIOS, London International Advertising Association Award, Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, Art Directors Club, AICP, Webby Awards, New York Festivals, Spikes Asia and AdFest just to name a few.
His creative leadership has helped BBH China win 2008 Media Magazine’s Independent Agency of the Year, 2009 Media Magazine Agency of the Year, 2009 AdAge China Agency of the Year and most recently, he helped 72andSunny Singapore win Silver for Marketing Magazine’s 2020 Brand & Design Consultancy of the Year. His Johnnie Walker campaign, “Yulu”语路, was voted the top campaign for 2011 by Campaign Asia. That campaign has also achieved something unprecedented. It became a full-length feature film, which was officially selected by 5 international film festivals in 2011(Hong Kong International film Festival, Yunnan Film festival, Shanghai International Film festival, Busan International Film festival, Tokyo FilmEx international film festival)
In 2014, Johnny won the prestigious AME Green Awards for his work for WWF. A fervent believer that the power of creativity can help change the world, Johnny has also won the rare 2014 Cannes Chimera award for “Plight Map”
He has served on juries of several major award shows including D&AD (poster category 2009), AdFest (Film 2015), China 4A’s Award show (2009) and several times on Cannes Lions in Direct (2012), Press (2013), Design (2015) & Entertainment Lions (2016), the AICP in Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial (2021) and the Grand jury for Youtube works (2023)
In 2017, he was appointed the President of the Design Jury at Spikes Asia and in 2018, he was appointed the President of the Design Jury at Cannes Lions . In 2022, he served as Head of Jury for Craft at the Singapore Creative Circle Awards as well as Jury President for the Omni-channel category at The Golden Drum Awards.
Johnny also enjoys volunteering his time in giving masterclasses at major award shows, including Dubai Lynx, Spikes Asia and Cannes Lions. You may also find him giving lectures at Singapore Management University (SMU), La Salle College of the Arts or on leading programs like Thoughtful China and TIME.com.
Driven by his passion to inspire, Johnny co-founded a creative academy for children in Singapore called CREATOPIA. This academy taps into experts within the creative industry to conduct creative workshops which help expose kids to the different facets of the creative business, but also to inspire creative problem-solving skills. Its sole purpose is to keep children's natural creative flame from being extinguished by academia.
Beyond his creative directorial skills, Johnny is a proficient filmmaker, who has directed short films for Visa; TV commercials for Lux, Mentos, Qoros Auto and even a music video for Baileys, starring ‘Super Girl’ starlet Shang Wen Jie. In 2016, Johnny directed a fully animated public service TV commercial for CCTV. The film, titled “Unborn baby”, won him the coveted “Best Director” award in CCTV’s Bi-Annual Best Public Service Advertising Award Show.
Nowadays, you can find him busy running workshops all around the world for PITCHCOMMANDO; a professional coaching company he founded to help train creatives and executives become great presenters and communicators.
PITCHCOMMANDO International
Founder, Chief Creative Officer
Jan 2026- Present. Bangkok, Thailand
Accenture Song South East Asia
Chief Creative Officer, South East Asia
May 2022- Dec 2025 . Singapore
72andSunny Asia Pacific
Executive Creative Director Asia Pacific.
May 2017 - Apr 2022 . Singapore.
BBH China
Executive Creative Director-—- Chief Creative Officer.
December 2005 - April 2017. Shanghai, China
BBDO China
Executive Creative Director China
December 2004 - December 2005. Shanghai, China
Y&R New York
Creative Director / Vice President
July 2003 - November 2004. New York, United States
BBDO New York
Art director--Associate Creative Director
November 1997 - June 2003. New York, United States