AMBITION Advisory Board Member

Will Collie is Head of Edelman’s Southern Californian business and has led operation since July 2017. Will is an integrated communications strategist with a specialty in earned-centric creative marketing. Will is known for partnering with clients and teams to innovate their communications and marketing strategy in a way that reflects the constantly changing way that consumers engage with brands.

While he now resides in Los Angeles, Will was previously based in Chicago, where he was head of Edelman’s Health business. During that time, he also sat on the Board of Directors for the health technology incubator MATTER where he worked with industry leaders as well as start-up entrepreneurs and innovators to build mutual, sustainable partnerships that bolster the junction of health and technology.

Since originally joining Edelman’s Australian business in 2012, Will has led the acquisition, development and execution of award-winning communications and marketing programs for clients including but not limited to The LA Times, MedMen, Taco Bell, Guitar Center, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Eli Lilly, Genzyme, Bayer and Reckitt Benckiser.

In 2014, Will was named across all industry sectors as the inaugural Australasian Public Relations and Advertising Industry Public Relations Professional of the Year.

Before joining Edelman, Will served as senior manager of external affairs for global pharmaceutical company Sanofi where he notably was responsible for the development of the region’s first digital marketing work stream. Previously, he worked for Weber Shandwick as well as the Department of Health Services in the United Kingdom.

Will received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and completed further communications and health policy studies at Sydney University and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. 

Will is husband to Lauren and father to Max, George and Evie. In his spare time, you can find him experimenting with and exploring Los Angeles’ best coffee houses, listening to records, wrestling his guitars from his children or drooling over motorcycle classified ads.