In November 2019, Bas was appointed Global Chief Creative Officer of Wunderman Thompson — a responsibility he shares alongside Daniel Bonner. Before this, Bas was a Creative Partner at J. Walter Thompson’s Amsterdam office as well as JWT’s Global Futures Council Lead.
Bas’s ambition and commitment to creativity and innovation turned a local office into one of the most talked about and awarded agencies in the world. With ground-breaking, double Grand Prix-winning campaign ‘The Next Rembrandt’, the agency became the most awarded Dutch agency at Cannes in 2016 and was named Cannes Lions ‘Innovation Agency of the Year’.
In December 2016, Bas was honored by Ad Age’s Creativity 50, listing the 50 most creative people of the year, together with Tom Ford, Beyoncé, Prince and David Bowie. In April 2017, this honor was followed by being selected by Adweek as ‘One of 10 Global Creative Leaders reinventing Advertising and the Ad industry.’
Bas originally graduated as a Logistics Engineer but moved swiftly into advertising as a junior copywriter. Two years later he became Creative Director and Board Member of DDB Amsterdam, before leaving with his creative partner Michael Jansen, to start their own agency: Selmore. After setting up an experimental agency called Nothing in 2008, Bas joined JWT in 2012 with the ambition to truly do things differently. So, he did.
Since November 2019, Wunderman Thompson has been named Cannes Lions ‘Most Innovative Network’ for 2020/2021 and received the Innovation Grand Prix for Unilever’s ‘Degree Inclusive’, the world’s first inclusive deodorant.
Wunderman Thompson received a second consecutive Grand Prix at Cannes in 2022, taking home the inaugural Creative B2B Grand Prix for Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings 'Speaking in Color', a voice- activated AI color system that produces hues based on human inspiration, allowing color to be spoken for the first time ever.
To date, Bas has won 51 Cannes Lions (four Grand Prix), 11 D&AD Pencils amongst which a Black Pencil for his work for Free a Girl ‘School for Justice’, plus numerous other international awards.
“Always go for the big leap. Go to the edge of your imagination. And then jump.”