Tell us about your journey! What makes you, you?

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have called Aotearoa home since the beginning of 2008. I grew up in the UK, originally on the outskirts of London before moving to Bournemouth on the south coast of England. Since arriving on these shores, I spent five years in Whakatū Nelson before jumping across the Strait to Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington in 2013, the same year I gained Aotearoa New Zealand citizenship.

Academia was not my thing (I leave that up to our very own Dr. Tim who’s got more letters after his name than I have within mine). So, my pathway to the role as Head of Creative has been through a long and varied career in marketing that has seen me collect a wide range of skills: Strategic thinking, copywriting, brand development, graphic design, art direction, video and audio editing, advertising management, marketing and communications management, etc, etc, blah, blah…

To bring these all together in my day-to-day mahi, I relate to Rick Rubin’s quote when asked what skills he brings to his role as a successful music producer, “I know what I like and what I don’t like, and I’m decisive about what I like and what I don’t like.” This in a nutshell, is a big part of my role — to be confident in the decisions I and the creative team make for the betterment of our clients.

What lights you up when you’re off the clock?

I’m a musician, so music is a constant in my life. I’m the drummer and backing vocalist in the band ‘Search For Yeti’. We released our debut album in December 2024 (available through all streaming platforms and on vinyl in record stores across the country) and are about to finish up our first headline tour of New Zealand. I’ve also recently joined another band called ‘The Wooden Box Band’ to help them tour their recently recorded latest album.

I’m incredibly passionate about cycling and love how easy it’s now becoming to ebike around the city with my wife and two young daughters (yay to safe cycle lanes!).

Never one to previously enjoy academic environments, I did recently complete my Level 3 certificate in He Papa Tikanga at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and plan on commencing additional te ao Māori study later in the year.

Other passions include football (did I mention I had an Under-15 trial for England?), cooking (I make a mean pizza dough), red wine (drinking not making) and watching WWE (yep, something that’s stuck with me since childhood!).

Sean performing with his band "Search For Yeti", along with photo proof of his famous TikTok.

Three words to describe yourself. Don’t think. just go.

Kind. Passionate. Dreamer.

What keeps you coming back to Hemisphere each day? (With a smile, obviously!)

Getting to be around Kokoro (shout out to my uce!). He’s got a beautiful soul and makes every day a great day. Oh and that time I went viral on TikTok for the costume I wore to a Taylor Swift concert, so we used it in client presentations…

Which project has made you go: ‘Yep, this is why I do what I do’?

I really loved the recent Check Clean Dry campaign. I was able to use all the super-useful reports and data from our Media team on past campaigns to develop and shape a new approach which saw great results. Plus, it was great fun to shoot the imagery in-house using our kaimahi as talent!

Every office has its legendary one-liners — what's yours?

"No idea’s a bad idea, unless it’s a bad idea."

Want to work with Sean and the team?