Aderwize

Executive Creative Director / The Barbarian Group

Edu Pou was born under the sign of Aquarius in the small town of Parets del Vallès on a Saturday of the 20th Century. He has been in advertising for almost 20 years, but he still keeps the excitement of a newbie.

Since 1996 he has been lucky enough to be a Creative Director at DoubleYou from 2000 to 2006, leading projects for San Miguel, SEAT, Audi, and the Cannes Grand Prix 2004 for Nike; he was also part of the interactive team at CP+B, when it was named best interactive agency in Cannes, working for clients like Domino's Pizza, Burger King, Nike, and Volkswagen; and for almost 7 years at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, first as a Creative Director for global clients such as Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts, BASF, and Nokia, and more recently as the Head of Creative Innovation across all accounts. Currently he is the Executive Creative Director of The Barbarian Group.

As a result of working for brave and demanding clients, and of being surrounded by excellent colleagues, he has collectively won well over 50 awards, including Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, CLIOs, New York Festivals, Sol, and FIAP. He has also been on the jury of the most prestigious advertising award competitions around the world, and has given speeches at industry conferences across the globe, including Spain, the Netherlands, Chile, and Bulgaria.

But it hasn't always been an easy journey. He also worked at a TV station that couldn't pay the electricity bills, as a designer at a shady (and I mean shady) board game manufacturer, as an offset printing machine operator apprentice at a local print shop, and as an online copywriter creating websites for clients with monochrome screens that couldn't even judge their work. That's why he doesn't take anything for granted, and he seizes the day, every day.

After living in Barcelona, Madrid, Miami, Boulder, and Amsterdam, home is where his uber-talented wife Demelza Rafferty and his baby boy Oscar are. With them he enjoys listening to old vinyls of British blues, be bop, prog rock, and psychedelia, and on his own he blasts heavy metal until his ears bleed... so to speak. He loves reading and rereading Vonnegut, Borges, and lately Italo Calvino, and he's an avid comic book collector. Seriously. His son's middle name (Thorgal) is that of a Belgian comic book hero: a viking from outer space. He still can't believe his wife let him get away with with it and he hopes his son not only forgives him for this, but also joins his passion when he's of age. Fingers crossed.