Warburton had early executive roles at McCann-Erickson, DDB Worldwide and Hyundai Motor Company in the 1980s and 1990s.
Warburton became Managing Director of Universal McCann in 2000, winning and retaining multiple significant government and corporate contracts over the following three years.
[2] Seven launched a legal challenge to the defection and the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled that Warburton could not start at Ten until 1 January 2012, five months later than scheduled.
[12] In 2023 it was announced that Warburton would be stepping down as managing director and CEO of Seven West Media, and chief financial officer Jeff Howard had been appointed as his replacement.
[14] In July 2024, Warburton joined the board of photo sharing app company Tinybeans as a non-executive director.