Gordon Torr (born 17 October 1953) is a former Global Creative Director of JWT, and author of ''Managing Creative People: Lessons for Leadership in the Ideas Economy'' (2008), published by

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

. His second novel, ''Kill Yourself and Count to 10,'' about his time at Greefswald, the hard labour camp created by convicted sex offender Aubrey Levin, was published in May 2014.

Biography

Educated in Natal,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, Torr covered the 1976 Soweto Riots as a journalist for the SABC, taught at St Joseph’s Minor Seminary in Lesotho, and was employed as a copywriter by

Grey Advertising Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asi ...

& Marketing in 1980. Torr joined the Johannesburg office of JWT in 1985. He spent three years as Creative Director of JWT Mexico, based in Mexico City, before transferring to London as Global

Creative Director A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...

De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

and, subsequently, of

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

, Kellogg’s and Vodafone. He was appointed Chair of the Worldwide Creative Council of JWT in 2003. Torr lives in the UK with his family and is currently writing several books.

Books

Non fiction

* 2008: ''Managing Creative People: Lessons for Leadership in the Ideas Economy'' *2011: ''Managing Creative People: Lessons in Leadership for the Ideas Economy'' *2019: Skip ad in 5 The AD Blockers guide to Brand planning

Novels

* 2010: ''The Turing Test'' (under the nom de plume of Leyland Torr) * 2014: ''Kill Yourself and Count to 10'', Penguin South Africa

References

External links

*
Penguin Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torr, Gordon Living people 1953 births Copywriters South African writers South African businesspeople South African male journalists