Mark Green, global CEO of Droga5 and co-founder of The Monkeys, died last Saturday in New York City after what the company described as a “sudden and unexpected” heart attack. He was 53.
Green had spent nearly two decades building one of Australia’s most influential creative brands, then stepped onto the global stage at a moment when Accenture Song was trying to turn Droga5 into a genuinely worldwide creative network.
From a café idea to Australia’s most-awarded agency
Green co-founded The Monkeys in 2006 with Justin Drape and Scott Nowell after meeting them at Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency grew into Australia’s most-awarded shop, with a client list that included the Sydney Opera House, Telstra, Qantas, IKEA, Airbnb and Intel.
That track record made The Monkeys an acquisition target. Accenture bought the agency for a reported $63 million in 2017, later merging it with Droga5, the New York agency Green was eventually chosen to lead.
A leader asked to take Droga5 global
Green was appointed global CEO of Droga5 in 2024 and relocated to New York with his family. He framed the job as a first for the agency, telling Adweek at the time: “Truly, this is the first time Droga5 has been global.”
The move put Green at the center of one of the industry’s bigger questions: can a founder-led creative culture scale inside a consulting giant without losing the sharp, independent voice that made it valuable?
Green knew the tension from both sides. Before the global role, he spent five years as Accenture Song’s president for Australia and New Zealand, overseeing the integration of The Monkeys with Droga5. He had helped turn an indie success into part of a global network.
Why his death matters to marketers
For agency leaders, Green’s path is a case study in building cultural and commercial value. The Monkeys became a $63 million acquisition not because it scaled first, but because it built a strong creative reputation that larger buyers wanted.
For clients and teams inside Accenture Song, the immediate concern is continuity. Droga5’s leadership has said “more to come” on how it will celebrate Green’s legacy in the coming weeks, but no successor plans have been announced. Sudden leadership losses at the top of a creative network create real questions about client relationships, talent retention and the pace of the global expansion Green was hired to lead.
What leaders should take away
- Institutionalize culture: don’t let the founder be the only carrier of what makes an agency special.
- Build a visible succession bench before the organization needs one.
- Over-communicate with clients and teams after a leadership shock; silence reads as instability.
Colleagues paid tribute to Green over the weekend. Grant Patrick Flannery, who worked with him at The Monkeys and Droga5, wrote: “Everyone who knew Greenie is a better person for having had him in their lives.”
In 2025, Green was inducted into the AdNews Australia Advertising Hall of Fame. He wrote that someone once told him success in advertising required being smart enough to play the game but “dumb enough to think that it matters.”
Green is survived by his wife Rachel and two children, Ari and Gisele.
Source: Adweek
