MAAD Collective, a new 100% female-owned creative collective founded by industry veterans Mehreen Ahmed and Angela Denise, has launched in Sydney with a mission to challenge traditional agency structures. Combining strategy, storytelling, and design, the global collective partners with brands like Onitsuka Tiger to solve real business problems with flexible, purpose-driven creativity.
In an industry long dominated by legacy structures, entrenched hierarchies, and traditional ways of thinking, a new creative force is making a bold entrance by refusing to play by the old rules. MAAD Collective, a 100% female-owned and operated creative collective, has officially launched with an unapologetic mission: to challenge convention and reimagine how creativity, strategy, and culture intersect for brands and organisations that want real change—not just another campaign. Founded by global agency veterans Mehreen Ahmed and Angela Denise, the Sydney-based collective brings together decades of experience across continents, categories, and cultures. What they are building is not just another boutique agency; it is a new model of creative partnership designed for organisations that are navigating crisis, reinvention, cultural shifts, or the pressure to stay meaningful in a constantly moving world.
The seeds of MAAD Collective were planted through the professional and personal journeys of its founders, whose experiences in global advertising hubs shaped their desire to create something more purposeful, more flexible, and more human. Angela Denise spent over 20 years in New York’s most competitive agencies, crafting strategically led campaigns across beauty, retail, lifestyle, and entertainment for brands such as Disney, Keds, Procter & Gamble, Gerber, and Peloton. Her work helped launch new businesses, rejuvenate heritage brands, and pick up recognition from some of the industry’s most respected award shows including the Clios, The One Show, Lürzer’s Archive, and the Effies. But it was her relocation to Sydney during the height of COVID—while pregnant with her daughter and accompanied by her partner—that marked the beginning of a shift. The move brought not only a new perspective but a new sense of clarity about the kind of work environment she wanted to create and the kind of creative impact she wanted to have outside the pressures of traditional agency structures.
For Angela, MAAD Collective is a deliberate rejection of the constraints that define much of agency life. “We built MAAD to create a way of working that challenges the norm and doesn’t shrink when life expands—a model that makes space for the work, our families, and the chaos that comes with both,” she explains. “All while letting us create work we’re genuinely proud of. We get to the real problem quickly, think strategically, and bring in global minds when it makes the idea stronger. It keeps the process clear and efficient, for us and for our clients.” It is this blend of realism, ambition, and agility that sits at the heart of MAAD Collective’s identity.
Her co-founder, Mehreen Ahmed, brings a complementary but equally expansive background to the partnership. Having worked at major agencies including Ogilvy Singapore, Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai, and MullenLowe Singapore, she has led global and regional accounts across Asia Pacific for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Coca-Cola. But Mehreen’s career took a transformational turn seven years ago when she launched her own FMCG brand, WeLove Pizza—a venture that has since grown into a national category leader within Australia’s independent grocery sector. The experience of building a business from scratch, navigating manufacturing, distribution, branding, and retail, gave her a deep understanding of how strategy must align with operational reality.
This dual perspective—agency and entrepreneurship—now informs every aspect of her work at MAAD Collective. “Having spent time both agency side and in a manufacturing start-up launching a national food brand, I have an even greater appreciation and understanding of the Marketers’ agenda and that of the rest of the C-suite,” Mehreen says. “MAAD Collective is not afraid to ‘burn the brief’ and get deeper into a client’s business to develop realistic solutions.” For her, creativity only matters if it solves real business problems, and that philosophy is now a foundational principle of the collective.
It is this commitment to going beyond the initial ask—to digging for the underlying issue rather than polishing the surface—that is already drawing interest from major brands. MAAD Collective partners with organisations in moments that matter: when they are reinventing themselves, navigating cultural complexity, entering new markets, or pushing for meaningful social and commercial impact. The collective’s model is deliberately flexible. Instead of fixed structures and pre-set team configurations, they assemble project-specific teams drawn from a global network of top-tier talent. It is a structure that mirrors the needs of modern organisations, ensuring the right expertise is matched to the right challenge rather than forcing briefs into a standard agency workflow.
Already, the model is proving its value. MAAD Collective has begun working with high-profile global brands, including Onitsuka Tiger, which is in the midst of both a global and Australian resurgence. The founders partnered with the brand to launch its flagship store in Sydney—a milestone moment for the brand’s renewed design and retail direction. The collaboration has since expanded, with MAAD Collective now named the lead agency for the brand’s in-store campaigns. The relationship has been one defined by trust, strategic alignment, and a mutual understanding of how global brands need to translate their identity in local markets.
“From the moment we began working with MAAD, it was clear they genuinely care about our brand and our ambition,” said Theo Kalivas, AU Country Manager of Onitsuka Tiger. “They’re quick thinkers and they instinctively understand how to bring a global brand to life locally. We’re excited to keep growing this partnership into 2026 and beyond.” For MAAD Collective, the early success with Onitsuka Tiger reinforces the value of a nimble, strategically driven approach that prioritises authentic understanding over formulaic execution.
The collective is also working with Buttar, Caldwell & Co., a boutique Sydney-based law firm known for its longstanding reputation and recently celebrated 25 years. The work with the firm highlights MAAD Collective’s ability to move across diverse categories—from law and lifestyle to retail and social impact—while keeping the same core approach: uncover the real problem, assemble the right talent, and design an approach built around strategic clarity.
What MAAD Collective ultimately represents is a shift in how creative partnerships can function—a shift driven not only by the founders’ capabilities but by their lived experiences as women balancing leadership, creativity, and personal life. The collective’s fully female-owned identity is not a branding exercise; it is a statement of intent. It challenges an industry that still often sidelines women in leadership and disrupts the conventional structures that tend to shape agency culture. For Angela and Mehreen, the aim is not to be seen as the “female alternative” to existing agencies, but as a powerful, globally experienced, deeply strategic creative partner that also happens to be built and led by women.
As more brands, governments, NGOs, and social enterprises seek partners who understand cultural nuance, social progress, crisis navigation, and audience complexity, MAAD Collective is positioning itself as a catalyst for organisations ready to rewrite the rules. Based in Sydney but operating globally, the collective enters the market with the confidence of veteran expertise and the hunger of a new venture. For an industry ready for reinvention, MAAD Collective arrives not quietly, but with clarity, purpose, and the conviction to challenge conventions—unapologetically.
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