We put brands, businesses and people in a position of strength

Toby Sellers Chief Executive Officer, NZ

Toby is a senior agency leader with 25 years of experience working in New Zealand and London with leading global companies. His career began at DDB Aotearoa before moving to DDB London, while in London he also spent time with Havas and McCann. Returning to New Zealand in 2011, Toby joined FCB where he spent 11 years in senior roles and was promoted to Managing Director in 2019. Toby joined Bastion Shine in 2023 as Managing Director of the Creative Business.

During his career, Toby has worked with a diverse range of leading global and local NZ brands including, Air New Zealand, McDonald’s, Nestle, Kraft Heinz, Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, Jaguar, Budweiser, Samsung, Mitre 10, SKY TV, Foodstuffs and Genesis. Toby’s passion is building high-performing work cultures and long-term client partnerships that deliver sustained business success. He’s also an advocate for the power that creativity can bring to business when a transformational idea is adopted into the heart of an organisation.

Much of Toby’s career has been spent in integrated marketing agency groups, so he is a champion of creating high-functioning, multi-disciplinary teams that can positively influence all areas of a business and brand through communications and customer-led experiences and solutions.

Cheuk Chiang Group Chief Executive Officer

Cheuk Chiang, Group CEO of Bastion, leads the agency’s teams across Australia, New Zealand and the USA, spearheading one of the largest integrated marketing and communication networks in Australasia and North America. With a career deeply rooted in innovation and leadership across creative, media, data and technology, Cheuk continues to push boundaries and drive exceptional outcomes putting brands, clients and organisations in a position of strength.

Before taking on the Group CEO role, Cheuk served as CEO of Bastion ANZ, where he played a pivotal role in strengthening the agency’s footprint and client impact. His extensive leadership experience includes serving as CEO, Asia Pacific for Dentsu Creative and CEO, Greater North APAC for Dentsu. His journey into data and technology began with chairing Mutiny, where he helped pioneer the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance marketing performance.

Earlier in his career, Cheuk held senior roles at Omnicom, serving as CEO, APAC for both Omnicom Media Group and PHD. At PHD, he led expansive growth from 3 to 21 offices and helped earn over 130 local and regional Agency of the Year awards for both OMD and PHD across the Asia Pacific region. His tenure at Cummins & Partners was marked by award-winning campaigns and notable success that led to the agency’s acquisition by Sapient Nitro.

Prior to Cummins, Cheuk contributed significantly at Leo Burnett Singapore as Regional Account Director, where he helped scale the Asia Pacific Breweries account into one of the agency’s largest regional clients.

With a career spanning three decades, Cheuk has worked with a wide range of iconic brands including Apple, ANZ Bank, Coca-Cola, GSK, Heineken, Kmart, Mars, Myer, Nestlé, Unilever and VW. His accolades include Media Magazine’s Suit of the Year in 2002 and The Internationalist Magazine’s Agency Innovator of the Year in 2010.

Andy McLeish Chief Strategy Officer NZ

Andy McLeish is a partner and head of strategy at Bastion Shine. A well respected marketing and strategy leader, Andy spent over a decade in senior marketing and innovation director roles within businesses as diverse as Fletcher Building and NZ Lotteries. Andy then spent five years as Head of Strategy at Colenso BBDO, working across many of New Zealands’ largest and most successful brands and helping put that agency in the top 5 most effective agencies in the world for three years running. Over that time he was also ranked in the top 3 strategists globally. Andy has also spent time as an independent consultant to a number of businesses in the areas of innovation, strategic roadmapping, brand, corporate strategy and purpose. He is now a partner at Bastion Shine in New Zealand, working with many corporates and exciting startups and entrepreneurs. He also sits on advisory boards with his specialist expertise being brand, innovation and business growth strategy.

Annabelle Pitkin Chief Client Officer

Melissa Hill Chief Operations Officer

Melissa has over twenty years working in the advertising industry, and has worked for all the global networks. At Bastion Shine we are mindful of the careful balance between creativity and return on investment which is why we strive for innovative remuneration models that incentivise behaviours and interactions as business partners, rather than the traditional agency/client relationships.

Oliver Green Chief Creative Officer

Danny Carlsen Head of Design

Danny’s passionate about blending creativity with clever thinking to transform the way people experience brands. His belief is that design is an integrated, strategic, and vital component to propel businesses to be more relevant and disruptive. Over the last 17 years he’s had the privilege to build solid relationships with brave clients, to deliver memorable experiences for some of the world’s largest brands. As well as winning local and international awards for packaging, art direction, interior design and branding Danny's work has been featured across international design blogs, websites, magazines and design books.

Joanna James Managing Director of Communications and Experience

Joanna heads Amplify New Zealand, Bastion Shine’s integrated communications team, specialising in communications strategy, PR, media relations, influencer marketing, content and social media. A results-driven senior consultant, Jo ensures business and PR strategies are closely aligned and executed through creative tactical implementation. Jo has delivered award-winning integrated campaigns for some of Aotearoa’s most loved brands, as well as guiding organisations facing complex reputation challenges. She has extensive agency-leadership experience in corporate and consumer communications across the technology, financial, travel, education, health and energy sectors.

Sally Hooper Managing Director, Wellington

Luke Farmer Group Business Director

Holly Dean General Manager, Social

Jack Watts Executive Director

Since 2019, Jack has led and driven Bastion’s growth to become the largest independent Agency in Australasia with a growing presence in the USA. As Group CEO, Jack is hands on day-to-day with Bastion’s global team, client base, service and geographical expansion. Jack is driven to ensure that anyone – client or colleague – that walks through one of the many yellow Bastion doors around the globe has a world class experience.

Fergus Watts Founder and Non-Executive Chairman

Thanks to his knack for understanding business quickly and creating growth opportunities, Fergus Watts has assisted some of Australia’s most dynamic companies in charting the future of their marketing and communications. First and foremost, Fergus believes that a company is nothing without quality people growing within it. He has even fostered his own education program, the Bastion Degree, to help turn visionary young workers into well rounded self-starters.