E8: Xavier Teo ECD

“I’m never the smartest guy in the room — but I know what I want.”

Xavier Teo is an artist and Executive Creative Director, most recently at R/GA, whose talent has taken him from passion projects as a teen in Singpaore to an incredible advertising career working on the world's biggest brands. He’s won all manner of awards, from Cannes Lions to Webbys, and covered accounts as iconic as Verizon, P&G, and Budweiser. Like many of the best creatives, Xavier got his start just messing around making stuff he thought was cool: club flyers. Coming up in Singapore as an underground electronic music fan, obsessed with the flyers advertising his favorite parties, he started making his own. Soon enough, his work caught the eye of an ECD at the local Ogilvy office — they called him in, asked to see his portfolio, and the rest is history. Shane sits down with Xavier to discuss winning a Sports Emmy for his first Super Bowl commercial, learning what it means to listen to people, and why New York is the best place in the world to be a creative.