Bullard, Whitson and Foot form Meteorite threesome

MRM Meteorite has unveiled a new management structure to succeed co-founders Hugh Bishop and Debbie Smith, who are taking on consultancy roles at the agency after reaching the end of their earn-outs.
Chief strategy officer Chris Whitson and managing director Olly Foot will become joint chief executives, and report to chairman and chief creative officer Nicky Bullard to form a management “threesome”.
Whitson will remain chief strategy officer, while Foot will take the additional role of chief commercial officer.
Bishop and Smith founded Meteorite in 1999 in Putney. Before launching the agency, Bishop had held senior marketing positions at Levi’s and Burton Group, while Smith was the managing director of WPP’s integrated agency PCG.
MRM Meteorite was formed in 2011 when the duo sold the business to McCann Worldgroup and it was merged with McCann Relationship Marketing. Both Bishop and Smith took the two most senior roles in the new entity, triggering the exit of MRM boss Mike Cornwell.
The first stage of the succession strategy emerged in January when Bullard was lured from Lida, effectively replacing ECD Dan Douglass on the creative side, and Bishop as chairman. Douglass had been at the agency 8 years.
Foot had rejoined MRM Meteorite in 2012 after two years at Carlson, having previously spent eight years at the agency.
Meanwhile Whitson was signed in 2015 after an 18-month spell at WPP’s Team News. Prior to that he had been at VCCP Me, the agency he had co-founded with Ben Stephens and Neil Francis, as Stephens Francis Whitson in 2005.
It was recently revealed that the agency heads this year’s DMA Awards shortlist, having been nominated for Tommee Tippee, Vauxhall, Direct Line and Xbox Survival Billboard (pictured), which won two golds and a silver for sister agency McCann London in Cannes.