COPENHAGEN, DENMARK // Dropped out of school aged 9, ditched education at 15, fired by McDonalds a year later. If failure is the route to success, Will Rust got off to a good start.

Swapping burgers and delinquency for typography and art direction (on his Dad’s advice), from the age of 17 he spent many years hopping from agency to agency until Ogilvy seemed like a good place to be.

Since his first ECD position, every agency he has led has topped their national rankings, winning Agency of the Year titles across the board. He also helped make Ogilvy Ukraine the “Most effective agency in Europe” according to the 2012 Effie global index. He has won awards for every discipline at pretty much every show including Cannes, D&AD, Clio, Red Dot & OneShow.

In recent times, he is most proud to have worked with NASA on a project to combat hunger on earth while providing food for a future manned Mars mission, helped thousands of migrant workers reconnect with their families during the holy month of Ramadan, and worked to bring gay communities from LGBT-unfriendly nations to a pride march using specially developed mobile technology.

He believes strongly that creative people have to think like children in order to succeed.

And if you don’t agree then you’re a big smelly elephant.