Our People | The Taboo Group

Andrew MacKinnon

Founder / Managing Director

Andrew MacKinnon

Founder / Managing Director

Andrew “Macca” Mackinnon gave birth to Taboo at the tender age of 20 and has spent the last 18 years pushing and pulling it into the burgeoning creative beast it is today.

An entrepreneur at heart, he opened the iconic Ponyfish Island Bar on the Yarra River, which then led to the birth of another baby – the Melbourne City Brewing Company. He also established Assembly House, a hub for creative entrepreneurs and freelancers, and his latest venture, ‘Skymorials,’ is the fastest growing online memorial site in the world.

He is also a dedicated member of the Entrepreneur’s Organisation Australia – Victoria Chapter, and was President in 2016.

James Mackinnon

Partner/Strategy Director

James Mackinnon

Partner/Strategy Director

James joined Taboo in 2015 after spending four years abroad as a Planning Director at Strawberryfrog, New York. Prior to that, he was at Clemenger BBDO and George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne.

James is a strong believer in the power of brands to influence culture via what they do – not what they say. This has seen him create globally impactful campaigns for the likes of Corona, Reebok, Jim Beam, PepsiCo, Barbie the Transport Accident Commission.

Outside Taboo, James is the co-founder of a small but growing kombucha business based in Byron Bay. He is also the co-founder of two small but growing daughters.

Matilda Hobba

General Manager

Matilda Hobba

General Manager

Tilly grew up to hippy parents who banned television and sugar, and so it was only natural that she found herself in a career that celebrated both.

Like a true ad thoroughbred, she spent years over 15 years slogging her heart out at Melbourne’s most iconic agencies including Clemenger BBDO, GPY&R and Cummins&Partners. During this time she ran a number of high profile clients including Schweppes, HBA, Mercedes-Benz, CUB and Tourism WA, and was named in the “Top 50 Account Directors in the World” list by global creative bible, The Directory. She joined Taboo in 2016 and quickly made herself part of the designer furniture.

Tilly is a respected industry mentor, a champion of equality in the workforce and the mother of two sons, one of whom changed his name to Motorbike.

Reece Hobbins

Director of Brand Development and Innovation

Reece Hobbins

Director of Brand Development and Innovation

Reece is like a neo-lit bullet train from the future who has come back in time to spearhead Taboo’s creative department. With nearly 20 years industry experience in Canada and Australia, Reece specialises in digital, design, experiential and product development – and is responsible for driving the agency’s cutting-edge culture and innovation capabilities.

Having unsurpassed experience working in youth markets, Reece is on Nike’s innovation panel and was a guest speaker at Nike’s Asia Pacific Marketing Summit. He has developed exciting and ground-breaking campaigns for Nike, CUB, NAB, Cadbury, NHLPA, YAHOO! and Schnitz.

Reece is also an artist, a photographer and a founder of Diemen’s Hot Sauce.

Kate Prowse

Group Account Director

Kate Prowse

Group Account Director

Kate is the pounding heart of the agency and a gal who defines what it means to be a suit; She’s fast, furious, dangerously efficient – and does it all with a bloody smile on her face.

With a double degree in Economics and Commerce majoring in marketing – she manages projects like a ninja. She is fiercely competitive, loves a challenge and can do everything except for one thing at a time.

In her previous life she was a world champion Irish dancer, but these days, limits herself to a more cruisy routine of hardcore CrossFit.

In her spare time, she is a Director of ‘SheSays’ Melbourne, a not-for-profit organisation that provides support and mentoring opportunities for women in the creative industry.

Nick Jamieson

Executive Creative Director

Nick Jamieson

Executive Creative Director

Raised a nomad, Nick spent his childhood in lots of really hot, faraway places where freckly pale kids live like vampires.

This gypsy-like existence manifested itself into his career where, like a toddler easily distracted by shiny things, his limited attention span helped him amass a widely diverse creative career.

From making a rogue TV show in the ad breaks during David Letterman and running Lifelounge.com, Australia’s original youth culture publication, to making ads and brand activations for agencies both big and small, he’s very happy to call Taboo home. Nick brings a wealth of experience from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne where he was Creative Director of Activation, working on clients including MARS Chocolate, Petcare, CUB, Nike and Fonterra.

He also shaved his beard off once and everyone at work made fun of him.

Gloria Aiken

Financial Controller

Gloria Aiken

Financial Controller

Well-travelled, occasional model, undisputed Queen of the Dancefloor – meet “G-Money”, Taboo’s revered Controller of the Finances.

Gloria’s breadth of experience has seen her crunch numbers at some of the smallest and biggest shops in the country. But spreadsheets and keeping agencies afloat aside, it’s the industry’s unique characters she loves most about the job. And luckily for her, there’s more than a few here.

Celia McCarthy

Account Director

Celia McCarthy

Account Director

Celia grew up in a family wine business and could balance a budget before she was 10. By 18, having conquered the art of people management and pinot, she headed to London to pursue an acting career – which would have been incredible had she possessed a talent for acting. Luckily for Celia, the theatre’s PR department needed some help (whether this point was due to the previous point is for you to determine) – and it was here that Celia discovered that communications were her jam.

From here, Celia’s PR career took off and after moving home to Australia she found herself working on tourism and hospitality clients, and her favourite gigs Splendour in the Grass and the Falls Music and Arts Festival.

She then moved to creative agency, Dig&Fish where she worked on Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Sephora, Piper-Heidseick and Devil’s Corner.

Celia came to Taboo in early 2020 and can never leave. That’s an order.

Tatum Ambler

Senior Strategist

Tatum Ambler

Senior Strategist

Tatum is proof that one can never have too many career paths. Originating in property development, she seamlessly transitioned into the world of communications at Publicis Group, where she honed in on delivering data-driven media solutions with a KPI of >15 acronyms per slide.

Now at home as a strategist inside the gritty walls of Taboo’s, she enjoys blending strategy, digital, brand and data with an agile and open-minded approach.

Outside work, you’ll find her hiding under a doona recording her footy podcast or down the coast pretending she’s a pro surfer.

Kevin Dutton

Partner

Kevin Dutton

Partner

Kevin “KD” Dutton started his career as a Junior Production Assistant at FCB and went on to become one of the industry’s most experienced and respected leaders. He has been many things, including Regional Chair and CEO of FCB, a founding partner of both BADJAR and Spinach and Chairman of Monash University’s Department of Marketing Advisory Board.

He’s now our Chief – where he supplies the agency with valuable advice, expertise and most importantly, his home-made salami.

Steph Kitchin

Associate Creative Director

Steph Kitchin

Associate Creative Director

Steph brews her own beer and can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 60 seconds. With seven years of design experience and five in art direction, Steph was previously held hostage at BWM Dentsu where she chugged the Kmart Kool-Aid and tailor made campaigns for the faaaaaaaashion capital, Chadstone.

Steph’s favourite thing about working at Taboo is the work. 9 times out of 10 it involves making roads safer, reducing family violence, saving the planet or some other inspiring cause.

If you ever want to win a game of table tennis, definitely play against Steph.

Max Kennedy

Creative

Max Kennedy

Creative

We’ve asked Max to send us his bio 17 times. Max, if you’re reading this, send us your goddamn bio.

HENRIETTA CORLEY

Senior Account Director

HENRIETTA CORLEY

Senior Account Director

It’s true that when we hired Henrietta, someone thought we’d recruited a lederhosen-wearing German woman who could hold nine steins in each hand. Sadly for that person who loves steins and lederhosens, Henrietta (the name) is Dutch and Henrietta (the person) is a professional wizard, having studied Paramedicine before becoming a Social Media Producer before spending six years at a largely unknown (and by all reports, very relaxed) agency called CHEP.

Henrietta joined TABOO in 2020 during the pandemic, meeting most of the team in person for the first time at the Christmas party. This goes a long way to explain why she still believes our induction program consists largely of hugs and love poems.

Now, Henrietta is one of TABOO’s leading suits and drives some of our most loved clients. She is also a leading member of TABOO’s extensive “height of excellence” club of those for who well exceed the national height average.

Jacob Moeschinger

Social Media Executive

Jacob Moeschinger

Social Media Executive

Straight out of University at the ripe age of 21, Jacob commenced his advertising career as a Taboo intern. After a few short weeks, while quickly earning himself the unofficial title of Padawan, he found himself within Taboo’s growing strategy department.

2.5 years on, Jacob has worked on campaigns and always on activity for the likes of Nike, Carlton United Breweries, General Mills, Telstra, Schnitz, Respect Victoria, and the Transport Accident Commission. Despite his luscious long hair, easy going attitude and sunny coast mannerisms (has been advised strictly against using ‘sick’ as a positive adjective), Jacob’s a pertinacious and indispensable addition to the Taboo team.

Hannah Cleary

Creative Producer

Hannah Cleary

Creative Producer

Hannah has a Bachelor of Film and Television and is an AWARD School graduate, allowing her to fuse her creativity, perfectionism and expert styling skills together to produce Taboo’s events and brand experiences like a goddamn pro.

When she’s not chasing up supplier payments or Pinterest-hunting for 90’s bedroom styling, she’s bent over a sewing machine, designing and making futuristic clothing, or photographing sweet parties.

Dane Falkström

Creative

Dane Falkström

Creative

Dane prides himself on being good at most things he puts his mind to. Call it what you will – naivety, recklessness, the fact that he’s from the Sunshine Coast – the man just seems to find himself entwined in fashionable and obscure projects that see him creating super cool stuff and collaborating with like-minded artists and designers nationwide.

Before joining Taboo as resident design guru, Dane ran an independent creative studio in Queensland working with clients such as MMVAF, Entourage Tours, Total Fitouts and more. Now he spends his spare time making music videos, building out his record collection or playing drums whilst skateboarding.

Chloe Herbert

Account Manager

Chloe Herbert

Account Manager

Hailing from the Queen’s country and with a degree in art history majoring in fashion photography, Chloe began her career working for a designer in London. It was only a natural progression for her to swap stitches for spreadsheets, move to the other side of the world and start a career in the dark arts of account management at a creative agency.

Chloe possesses many superpowers, including patience longer than her limbs, smarts smarter than a smartie and the ability to morph herself into Kiera Knightly at the drop of a beret.

Tristan Goddard

Junior Creative

Tristan Goddard

Junior Creative

Whilst we’re uncertain exactly which dark ceremony summoned Tristan to Taboo – we know that he first appeared on the darkest of nights, having crawled straight out of a sweaty mosh pit.

Tristan’s a punk with a healthy disregard for the impossible. With a bachelor’s degree in Game Design and Interactive Media and a Postgraduate Degree in Communication Design, he carries a Mary Poppins sized bag of tricks and skills in design, editing, animation and VR.

Lily Anderson

Account Manager

Lily Anderson

Account Manager

Venturing from a branding agency in Sydney, Lily uses her quick wit and whip-smart intellect to dominate account service and agency life. Like a duck paddling on the water, she has the ability to run like the wind while maintaining composure and grace – which is not really like a duck at all.

Lily loves anything outdoors, spending her weekends either shredding at the snow or sea. Fascinated by equestrian, she could back a horse trailer down a hallway. And if you’ve got a joke, chances are she’ll find it funny.

Sarah MacKay

Account Director

Sarah MacKay

Account Director

With childhood dreams of becoming a dolphin trainer, it was a cruel twist of fate that led Sarah into advertising; the cruel twist of fate being that it is much harder to get a job as a dolphin trainer than it is to get one in advertising.

With her dolphin dreams in tatters, she commenced a corporate career in media, embarking on a quick (5 year) stint at Nova in Adelaide. Tired of being in the beating heart of radio culture in Australia, Sarah returned to the Windy City where she was warmly welcomed into Taboo’s account management team and also, our hearts.

Sarah enjoys making people run on a treadmill and ALWAYS putting her right shoe on before her left (some may call this superstitious, Sarah says that’s a very unlucky thing to say).

Raffi Martins

Senior Creative

Raffi Martins

Senior Creative

Raffi joins Taboo’s Brazillian contingent and puts the word humble into “overachieving-multi-award-winning-young-creative-guy”.

A true multi-disciplinarian, Raffi is a keen learner who will teach himself anything he’s interested in and be excellent at it before most people have had their morning coffee. Specialising in art direction and design, Raffi ultimately believes in the power of get-off-your-butt; he’s been known to fund ideas he truly believes in, and has worked in agencies all over the world, including Brazil, the US (including the infamous Miami ad school), Germany and most recently, Australia.

On the side he’s a photographer, a surfer, a skater, a skateboard designer and understandably, most proudly, a Dad.

Sim Greentree

Senior Producer

Sim Greentree

Senior Producer

Sim “ain’t no green in Greentree” comes to Taboo with a whopping 20 plus years of incredible production experience spanning creative agencies, production companies and clients. Having produced everything from big budget TVC’s (remember those?) to events that required her to shut down half of Hamburg, we all sleep soundly knowing that Sim sits within our walls.

Like most producers who don’t know how to do nothing, Sim is also a mother of three who likes hiking, travelling and coming back to work early from annual leave just so she can ‘get back into it’.

Andrea Motta

Traffic Manager

Andrea Motta

Traffic Manager

Andrea is an infectious combination of Brazillian, Italian and Spanish and comes to Taboo having worked in (and let’s be honest, managed) some of Europe’s biggest creative agencies for over 23 years. She runs Taboo like an iron clad cuddle drizzled in chocolate and topped with popping candy.

Andrea is warm as toast and we dare you to try and not fall in love with her within 30 seconds of coming into her orbit. She loves dancing, chocolate, sneakers and cooking for everyone around her; We’ve all gained 5kgs since her arrival and we don’t even care.

Away from the office, she runs a Brazilian cake business that is so good it will make your face explode. Check it out here if you never want to fit into your jeans again. http://www.ambrigadeiro.com/

Briony Singh

Digital Strategist

Briony Singh

Digital Strategist

If you ever want to feel bad about your annunciation, spend some time with Briony. Hailing from England with an honours degree in, well – English, combined with a passion for spoken word poetry, Briony specialises in digital strategy that makes you feel like you’re sliding into a warm bath of intellectual excellence.

Having led Sainsbury’s social media for three years, Briony moved to Leo Burnetts where she strategically corralled brands including Twinings, Honda, Samsung and City of Melbourne. Briony joined TABOO in 2020 amidst a global pandemic and many of us attribute her sweet strategic sentences for the fact that our souls are still alive.

Nicole Skilbeck

Director of First Impressions

Nicole Skilbeck

Director of First Impressions

As Director of First Impressions and Manager of Taboo’s Keyparty Photography Studios, Nicole holds the important job of being the face and soul of the agency – greeting, wrangling and gate-keeping like Ganesha.

A previous London bar General Manager and Sydney fashion store owner, Nicole brings with her a wealth of customer service experience, not to mention an impressive collection of how-did-you-find-that-vintage-denim-boiler-suit suits. She also has a knack for finding the coolest happenings around town, so much so that her weekly ‘what’s on this weekend’ emails spun off into their very own series known as Cultural Tip-Offs. Maybe you’ve even gone to one.

When she’s not running around organising everyone’s everything, you can find her loitering in underground galleries, “researching” new bars and restaurants and making parties.