Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Awesome - our friend Dave McGovern

Having just returned from Dave's funeral, overflowing with friends and family, I'm keenly aware that we were just a thin slice of his rich and well-lived life. However, our relationship with Dave McGovern plays an outsized part in the story of CreateFuture.

Following an intro from a mutual friend, Dave, then at Hymans Robertson, took a chance on a week-old consultancy and invited us to pitch for a decent-sized campaign brief the following week. I vividly remember receiving the brief. The first words of it, written by Dave, were: Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Awesome. Music to the ears of the three of us who'd started CF to do something different, and we would go on to put those same words at the top of every internal brief and sprint agenda for years to follow.

The first time we met Dave was at the pitch. He let us know that same evening that we'd won, and he became our first client. Ever the adventurer, he had loved the fact we hadn't pitched ideas, but instead proposed a collaborative process that he and his team would be part of. It was a process that he (and Andrew Adam and others) threw themselves into wholeheartedly. He even went as far as securing an entire floor of their London offices for us to run a 5-day Sprint, and to this day we're very proud of the campaign we conceived together that week.

We got the opportunity to work with Dave again when he moved to Redington and bought us in to help them find a fresh new brand direction. It was a huge responsibility, placed on his shoulders by the company's founders, and he relished the challenge. I think the day that he and Dave?(Ward) presented the shocking pink chevron that would go on (and continues to be) their new brand identity goes downs as a career highlight for both of them, and Dave McG excitedly called us shortly after to tell us that Robert Gardner had walked in wearing pink socks (or was it shorts?) the following week: he knew then that they were going to go with the new direction.

We've always said at CreateFuture that we choose to work with people that we professionally fancy. With Dave McGovern it went much, much deeper than that. We got him and he got us. He was the first person we would call when we needed help or feedback on our own business, and he never hesitated to build us up or call us out on our bullshit if we got too pretentious or strayed from our mission, even as recently as meeting us last year when he was in remission. He was clearly tired, but also energised by the opportunity to support three friends who had asked for his advice. From the many stories shared about Dave earlier today, this seems to sum him up perfectly - he was most fulfilled when putting other people's needs ahead of his own.

Dave's support and his unwavering belief in CreateFuture, from the very first week right up to his final months, gave us so much confidence, and I know that many people who knew and worked with him will have experienced the same selfless, freely-given support.

Collectively, we loved having Dave as a client. Individually, I know that Dave, Jessica and I loved having him as a friend. Bold, brave and awesome. He is and will be sorely missed.