Meteorite grabs Whitson from WPP

MRM Meteorite has bolstered its senior management line-up by luring Chris Whitson from WPP’s Team News to be the agency’s first chief strategy officer.
Whitson, who will take up the role next month, will report to MRM Meteorite chief executive Debbie Smith, who bigged him up big-time by saying “[Chris] has a real passion for driving powerful insights into great creative work”.
He has been at Team News – the WPP division set up to handle the group’s News UK’s account – just under 18 months, having quit VCCP Me in October 2013.
Whitson had co-founded the VCCP business, along with Ben Stephens and Neil Francis, as Stephens Francis Whitson in 2005.
He started his career in 1995 in his native Scotland at Faulds Group. By 1998, he had moved to London, and had spells at Bates, Rapier and GGT Direct before joining Clark McKay Walpole as planning director in 2001. Whitson stayed for three years before joining forces with Stephens and Francis.
Smith said: “Chris really gets the role of strategy in a multidisciplinary agency and has a real passion for driving powerful insights into great creative work.
“His appointment will further strengthen the agency’s ability to deliver truly meaningful connections between our clients’ brands and their customers.”
MRM Meteorite was formed in 2011 from the merger of McCann Relationship Marketing and Meteorite, the agency which was founded in 1999 by Hugh Bishop and Smith.
Both Bishop and Smith took the two most senior roles in the new entity, triggering the exit of MRM boss Mike Cornwell. The agency is owned by McCann World Group.

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