Rory is a proud Irishman who has spent much of his career travelling the globe.

Rory began his agency life in Dublin before working in Sydney, London and now Auckland, where he is a Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Special New Zealand.

He’s created highly successful Cannes-winning campaigns for brands globally, including the Kiwi Sceptics for Air New Zealand, The Sapeurs for Guinness, Good Morning World for Tourism New Zealand, David’s Unusables for Motor Neurone NZ, and most recently winning a Grand Prix for Last Performance, by Partners Life.

Rory is passionate about demonstrating the impact of creativity on the commercial outcomes of his clients.

Achievements include authoring two IPA Effectiveness Gold-winning papers for Guinness – unsurprisingly his favourite tipple.

Under his charge, Special is currently the New Zealand Effie and APAC Effie Agency of the Year.

In 2022, he was awarded the Global Strategic Planner of the Year by Campaign Magazine.

Rory has served on strategy and effectiveness juries around the world and is looking forward to debating the world’s best work at Cannes.