Mat Baxter

Before Huge, Mat served as Chairman of Initiative after five successful years as Global CEO. He took the reins of Initiative in August 2016 and transformed Initiative’s product and structure to help brands take the initiative in culture. In that time, Initiative was appointed as global media agency for leading brands like Amazon, LEGO, Converse, and Carlsberg resulting in it being ranked world’s fastest growing media agency by RECMA for 4 consecutive years.
A true veteran of the industry, Mat was a co-founder of Naked Communications and also previously served as CEO of UM Australia. Under his leadership, UM became the country’s highest-ranked and most awarded media agency, being named Australia’s “Media Agency of the Year” a record four consecutive years. The agency was also named “Global Media Agency of the Year” at the Festival of Media Global Awards in Rome, Italy, the first time an Australian agency had received this honor. Mat was also named by Campaign Magazine as CEO of the Year.
Mat has served as a board member for the International Advertising Association (IAA), Media Federation of Australia (MFA), and as Chairman of the Cannes Young Lions Competition.