Due to dramatically decreased revenue during the pandemic, D&AD has as part of a survival plan significantly reduced its number of staff members and reconfigured its sr. management team.

CEO Patrick Burgoyne has unselfishly volunteered to relinquish his role and step down, according to a D&AD statement which thanked him for years of service, first as a trustee and then, since December 2019, as CEO.

Long-serving COO Dara Lynch will now take the reins of D&AD, supported by the sr. management team--president Kate Stanners, deputy president Ben Terret, and the board of trustees. Tim Lindsay will also continue to play an active role as D&AD chairman.

The changes are designed to enable D&AD to perform on three fronts: First, to continue to run the D&AD Awards to its usual high standard; second, to continue to support the emerging cohort of creative talent as it seeks opportunities in the advertising and design industry, through the New Blood program; and third, to rebuild company reserves so that D&AD can be shaped for a different, primarily digital, future.

D&AD is a charity devoted to stimulating, celebrating and enabling excellence in commercial creativity, serving the global creative community with its awards, festivals and learning programs.