Tributes from Canberra's advertising and hospitality industries were flowing across social media on Sunday night following the death of Canberra businessman and entrepreneur Pawl Cubbin.
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Mr Cubbin was the visionary behind many iconic Canberra restaurants and bars including Belluci's and Public in Manuka, Little Brooklyn in Kingston and Shorty's in Civic.
He was a co-founder of Regional Express (REX) Airlines in 2002.
But he was most well-known as Canberra's most prominent advertising guru, establishing Zoo Advertising in the late 1990s and working in recent times on marketing campaigns for the Brumbies, the Centenary of Canberra and for property giant Geocon.
Mr Cubbin was also a joint owner of Academy nightclub, which officially closed its doors on Bunda Street on Saturday night.
Long-term friend and former Zoo Group creative director Jimi Bostock described Mr Cubbin as "larger than life".
"He just had this energy and excitement for creative ideas and new ways of doing things," Mr Bostock said.
"The one thing I knew about Pawl was it was never about the money - it was the thrill of taking an idea and turning that idea into a reality."
A Zoo Canberra representative said the team was "shocked" and "devastated" by the news of Mr Cubbin's death.
"He will be sorely missed," she said. "The team has been back and forth on phones today just comforting each other."
Mr Cubbin's sudden death on the weekend occurred just days after he announced he would close the Canberra office of advertising agency Zoo Group.
But in an interview with Fairfax Media late last week, he alluded to plans to rebrand Zoo and open a smaller "boutique" agency in two to three months time.
"Watch this space," he said last week.
"I know it’s a cliche but it’s time that we reinvented advertising and marketing in Canberra."
Mr Cubbin said it was not "going to be about money anymore".
"Everybody else is running around trying to make a profitable business," he said.
"We don’t really want to do that anymore. We make money out of other things, our property and hospitality venues and stuff that are doing okay.
"I just want to do this because I like it and want to make a difference in people's business."
Fairfax Media understands the Zoo Sydney office entered into liquidation in February. Zoo's Melbourne office also entered liquidation and closed in November last year.
The Zoo Canberra office will close on May 4.
