CLOSE-UP: Newsmaker - Why JWT's new creative chief must satisfy regional clients.

Has Craig Davis the bottle to improve JWT's creative clout?

Yet another Antipodean creative director is to make the long journey north of the equator to carve a place in London's advertising hub.

In Asia the Australia-born Craig Davis is a household name, a much-respected creative who has arguably been the lynchpin behind Saatchi & Saatchi's ascendancy in The Gunn Report on the most creative networks.

In the UK, however, he is an unknown who has just been appointed to the position of European creative chief at J. Walter Thompson. Like his fellow countrymen who have come before him, he arrives armed with charm and credentials.

But, in partnership with the worldwide president, Michael Maedel, will this be enough to elevate creative standards and make JWT a potent creative force?

Matt Eastwood - a fellow Antipodean and creative director at M&C Saatchi - knows Davis, a copywriter, well from when he was running his own Sydney-based agency, called Davis Green. Eastwood is a fan. He credits Davis with putting Saatchi & Saatchi Asia-Pacific on the map, building on the foundations laid down by his predecessor, David Droga.

'Craig is very driven and very creatively focused,' Eastwood says. 'Just as importantly he's a very good leader who people will listen to and respect. People want to follow him and trust him to lead them to better things. That's why he was the right person to take over from Droga.'