Martin Beecroft moves to CCO and Melanie Wiese to CSO at Meerkats, Perth as agency founders Mike Edmonds and Ronnie Duncan step back

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Beecroft_Wiese_Bain_BLOG.jpgIn the week of the agency’s 12th anniversary, CEO Gavin Bain announced that Meerkats, Perth founders Ronnie Duncan and Mike Edmonds are officially handing over the day-to-day running of the agency to a new leadership team.

Duncan is handing the strategic reins to chief strategy officer Melanie Wiese (centre) and Edmonds is passing overall creative direction duties to chief creative officer Martin Beecroft (above left). Both roles are new appointments under the direction of Bain (above right), and are in line with a leadership succession plan built to help the agency continue its success in a “post-founder” era.

These two appointments and the associated move “off the tools” for Duncan and Edmonds signal a clear direction for the business strategy of the agency. Wiese is widely regarded as a world-class brand planner, having filled senior roles at Grey New York and The Campaign Palace, Melbourne; while Beecroft has an impressive background in digital creativity and tech-led creative business solutions.

“It’s an exciting time for Meerkats with Martin and Mel formally stepping into roles that were really custom built for their skills,” said Bain. “We have worked hard at Meerkats to attract great talent, and this change is proof positive of the success of that approach. To have Mike and Ronnie remain connected to the business, and to give them the freedom to explore new opportunities is the best of both worlds for us.”

While not being specific about their intentions, both Duncan and Edmonds said they are freeing themselves from their day-to-day roles in order to explore the future of Meerkats’ core purpose-driven philosophies outside of the marketing industry. They made it clear this work is connected to Meerkats’ ultimate destiny as a brand in its own right. As such, they are not leaving the agency and will be involved in senior level client strategies and projects.

“More and more in the work I’ve been able to do at Meerkats, the impacts have been steadily growing beyond advertising.” said Duncan, ” Of course everyone talks about digital disruption nowadays, and that’s a large part of it, but there’s so much more going on. Shifts in business models, organisational behaviour, corporate strategy and fundamentally, how humans derive value and meaning from the companies they engage with. For me it’s time to take this further. And it’s absolutely central to Meerkats’ philosophy to go there.”

“We named our brand Meerkats, not Duncan-Edmonds.” said Edmonds, “We always intended for it to grow beyond us. It’s organic now. Smarter, younger professionals are taking it places Ronnie and I can’t, and that excites the hell out of me. I’m also super delighted that this new era of management is happening while remaining an independent agency. I’ve always thought that Perth can be known globally for its marketing smarts and that’s probably only possible outside of a network; to be free to experiment, to invest, to change fast, fail small. Watch this space.”

In keeping with that thinking, the agency’s board remains unchanged with Duncan, Edmonds and Bain as the three sole directors.