• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 8, 2015

Australian agency Cummins & Partners, which recently opened an office in New York, is putting a shingle up in Toronto. The agency has seen significant success in Australia and wants a chance to achieve further success on the global stage.

For agency founder and Global CEO Sean Cummins, the move to Toronto is equal parts nostalgia and strategy. You see, it’s a homecoming of sorts for Cummins who was born and lived in Toronto until moving to Australia with his family at the age of 10.

Of opening an outpost in Toronto, Cummins said: “Canada has a very talented creative pool, the market is very similar to Australia’s, plus it’s a country to which I still feel very much connected. I’m excited for the agency I launched to make an impact in the country where I was born. It feels like I’m coming home.”   

Heading up the Toronto outpost are Dave Carey, former Partner-Client Service at Union Creative and Senior Vice President Client Services at Lowe Roche, and Andrew Shortt, formerly a founding partner at HQvB.

And of the fact the agency partners are all men, Cummins said, “I laughed when we got together for this [press] photo and we were all blokes. But we are very pro-women and we are about to announce our female partners shortly. Having women as owners and partners has been key to our success worldwide.”