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Johannesburg - Nine months after he took up a post as Draftfcb's Asia-Pacific regional president, Neil van der Weele has resigned from the job and returned to South Africa.
"I just hated it," he said. "The people were great, and the job hugely satisfying, but I had to do a lot of commuting and after a while I thought, 'what am I doing?'.
"I wasn't enjoying myself. I was missing my family, who had remained in South Africa, and I was missing South Africa. So I thought I might as well do something I want to do."
For the moment, that doesn't include advertising. Van der Weele is taking a break from that for a year and meanwhile is doing consulting work.
Van der Weele was group CEO of Draftfcb South Africa when he left.
He was part of the Bosman Johnson agency group led by Mike Bosman which took over FCB (now SA's second-biggest agency group) and later sold out to the international holding company as part of an empowerment deal.
Under Van der Weele, the SA unit became the third most important in the worldwide Draftfcb network.
He fulfilled his regional responsibilities from a Melbourne base, and values the experience he gained from establishing and driving a digital and interactive capability for the region.
"I gained a lot of knowledge and experience in digital strategy, but it was lonely being away from my family, and life is too short."
- Fin24.com
