His specialization is in the area of brand strategy and competitive advantage. He was involved in many of the campaigns developed over the years by George Patterson Bates that are now a part of our daily lives including Ansett, V.B., Arnott’s and Panasonic. He’s best known as being the architect of the Optus brand having developed the brand essence from a clean sheet of paper and then delivering the ‘Yes’ campaign, which is heralded as one of the most successful in Australian history helping make Optus a dominant player on the Australian telecommunications scene.
In 1993 Ian attended the Harvard Business School in Boston for 3 months, successfully completing the Advanced Management Program and being chosen as Class Valedictorian.
He’s widely recognised as one of the most successful new business winners in Australian advertising delivering $250million in account wins in his role as Managing Director. When CEO in 2000, Patts was named “Advertising Agency of the Century”. In 2001 he represented the agency at the prestigious Cannes Advertising Festival collecting the Gold Lion for the best print advertisement in the world. In 2002, Patts won the “Advertising Agency Employer of the Year” and went on to record its highest ever post deregulation profit.
Ian retired from George Patterson Bates in 2002 at the age of 48. He remains involved in some consulting roles and as Chairman of its media buying business Zenith, which has annual turnover in excess of $1.3 billion. He’s also currently Chairman of Australia’s largest sheet fed printing company, the publicly listed Penfold Buscombe. He’s on the boards of Lowenbrau Beer in Australia, Hills Industries an Australian leader in electronics, consumer and industrial products and Cantarella Bros. makers of Vittoria Coffee.
In 2003 he continued a long entrepreneurial business partnership with his brother George launching Miracle Productions.
Ian’s had a long record of community service. For the last 8 years he has been a director of the Starlight Foundation, which grants wishes to critically ill children.
He’s been a strong supporter of St. Vincent’s Hospital, having chaired various appeals committees and helped to establish the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. In 1999 he was recognised by the Institute awarding him The Victor Chang Medal.
He’s a passionate Australian. In 1997 he was invited to join the board of the Centenary of Federation, which was responsible for the development and delivery of a yearlong series of events in 2001. He’s been a member of the Committee for Sydney accepted the Prime Ministers invitation to join the board of the National Australia Day Council, the group that among other things chooses the Australian of the Year.
In 2000 he was nominated as an Australia Day Ambassador by the Carr government received The Centenary Medal for services to the community during The Centenary of Federation.
Ian is also a much sought after public speaker. Over the last 5 years he’s spoken to over 100,000 Australians. This then led to international opportunities, which have included addressing 600 officers as the keynote speaker at the Winter Formal for the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 2000, he was engaged by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce as the keynote speaker to the Fortune 500 CEO’s at the Augusta National Country Club during the US Masters Golf.
