Clare Pickens

Clare Pickens is CEO of Leo Australia, where she leads one of the country’s fastest-growing creative agencies with a focus on using creativity as a driver of business transformation. Clare has built and led global, multidisciplinary teams for some of the world’s most recognised brands, including Nike, Netflix, Instagram, Heineken, Uber, Mondelez, P&G, Unilever and booking.com.

Known for challenging conventional agency models, Clare is passionate about helping businesses unlock growth through curiosity, creativity and reinvention. She believes the industry’s greatest opportunity lies upstream, solving  meaningful business problems rather than simply producing more communications, and is a strong advocate for embracing AI as a tool to amplify human creativity, not replace it.

A regular industry speaker, Cannes Lions juror and mentor, Clare brings a practical, optimistic perspective on leadership, innovation and the evolving role of creativity in driving commercial and cultural impact.