Bob Isherwood joins The One Club to lead global professional development

Cristina Blanaru Creativity, People

The One Club for Creativity, the world’s leading nonprofit organization supporting the global creative community, announced the appointment of creative legend Bob Isherwood as director of Professional Development,

In the new role, Isherwood will bolster existing club programs such as Creative Leaders Retreats and Executive Creative Summits, and develop a range of new global initiatives focused on professional development for creatives at all levels.

Isherwood’s creative career spans more than three decades including 22 years at Saatchi & Saatchi, where he served 11 years as the agency’s worldwide creative director and as chair of its worldwide creative board.  Under his leadership, the network was consistently ranked one of the most creative in the world, winning more than 8,000 major awards for clients such as P&G and Toyota, for whom Isherwood served as creative director for the global launch of Toyota Prius.

He is an inductee in the Clio Hall of Fame, recipient of the Clio Lifetime Achievement Award and British Design and Art Directors Gold Award for Advertising, and for many years ran the New Directors Showcase at Cannes.  Since leaving the agency world, he taught advertising at Vanderbilt University and cofounded Dialog Health, mobile messaging company created to improve patient satisfaction, compliance and adherence in healthcare.

“Bob’s vision, leadership and pursuit of creative excellence has been an inspiration to thousands of our people around the world,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club.  “We’re thrilled and lucky to have him as a member of the team, where he will raise our Professional Development programming to the next level.”

“Education has been my focus for quite a while now,” said Isherwood, who served as an Adjunct Professor for six years at Vanderbilt University where developed his own course on “Creative Advertising”.  “For the past few years, I’ve had ongoing discussions with Kevin and Tony (Gulisano) about where the current education system falls short for our industry.  That led me to joining the club because we are like minded on the gaps we can fill.”

Working closely with Tony Gulisano, The One Club global chief growth officer, Isherwood’s first initiative has been to develop a series of “Creative Perspectives” streaming sessions from top creative thinkers from around the world.  The sessions make up nearly a third of the club’s Creative Month 2020 online programming, running free of charge May 4-29.

The One Club for Creativity, producer of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards and Creative Week, is the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the success of the global creative community.  The One Show is a top global awards show for advertising, design and digital marketing, focusing on the creativity of ideas and quality of execution. The global ADC Annual Awards honors creative excellence in craft, design and innovation across all disciplines. Creative Week takes place in New York every May, and is the preeminent festival celebrating the intersection of art and commerce.