Breakthrough with Dermott Mullan - Courage. Confidence. Connection.

In this series, we ask our people to define what 'Breakthrough' means to them, both from a career standpoint and a personal note.

Our next issue features Dermott Mullan, Global Account Director.

What does ‘breakthrough’ mean to you?

For me it’s about being ‘different by design’, being deliberate in your choices to do something ground-breaking and focusing really hard on being brave and standing out from the crowd.

What’s been the most inspiring personal breakthrough in your life?

Deciding to move to another country – it took me too long to do but when I did it opened up my life in a way I hadn’t thought possible.  Everything I have now (including 2 beautiful children) came from taking that leap into the unknown.

What was the breakthrough moment in your career?

My first pitch win as a team lead, it taught me so much about working in a highly pressurized situation, building a team in a short space of time and gave me the confidence that I was doing something right, also that there’s just no substitute for bloody hard work!

Tell us about a piece of work you were involved with that you would define as a breakthrough.

Launching the PS5 in the middle of a global pandemic, we managed to truly connect into culture in an authentic way and the earned impact was enormous. Our teams around the world delivered some genuinely iconic activations, I’m still so proud of everyone involved.

What breakthrough in this industry - achieved by someone else - do you really admire? What do you admire about it?

Rory Sutherland’s work and way of delivering it always strikes a chord - I like contrarians…