MIKE LEAR
Global Lead Creative
Global Creative Leader | Executive Creative Director | AI-Augmented Storytelling, Brand & Culture Transformation | Builder of High-Performing Creative Teams
I’m a creative leader who builds teams, sharpens point of view, and helps organizations change through story.
For more than 20 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of strategy, creativity, and leadership, helping global brands and institutions find clarity, conviction, and momentum, especially in moments of transformation.
Today, I serve as Global Lead, Creative Teams & Innovation at BCG BrightHouse where I lead global creative talent across brand, culture, experience, and storytelling. My work sits alongside BCG strategy teams, bringing angle and spine to some of the world’s most complex challenges—from purpose and culture change to investor storytelling and AI-driven transformation.
AI + Creativity
I lead BrightHouse’s global push to move AI from experimentation into everyday creative and strategic practice. That includes:
* Firm-wide AI upskilling for creatives and strategists
* Embedding AI into insight generation, narrative development, and rapid prototyping
* Designing human-plus-machine workflows that increase quality, not sameness
* Ensuring taste, ethics, and originality remain the differentiators
My point of view is simple: AI is not the deliverable. Great work is. Used well, AI amplifies imagination, accelerates learning, and frees people to focus on judgment, meaning, and craft.
Leadership
I’m deeply invested in mentoring and capability building—creating environments where people feel safe to take creative risks and accountable for raising the bar. I’ve taught at VCU Brandcenter, The Creative Circus, and regularly speak to teams, leaders, and students about creativity, storytelling, and the future of the work.
I’ve judged the Webby Awards, Anthem Awards, The One Show, and Cannes Young Lions, and my work has been recognized in all major award shows.
Still learning. Still mentoring. Still chasing the work that makes people feel something, and do something.
*For password-protected work, just reach out and I’ll let you in.
hellomikelear@gmail.com