Jeremy Bullmore
Jeremy Bullmore spent 33 years at J. Walter Thompson, starting as a trainee copywriter, progressing through many roles, serving finally as Chairman and member of its worldwide board. He was a non executive director of WPP until 2004, and continues to serve on its Advisory Board. He was awarded the CBE in 1985.
Jeremy is a master craftsman as a wordsmith both as a writer and an accomplished and inspiring speaker. In a foreword to one of his recent books, Sir Martin Sorrell states that: “No one writes with the fluency, deftness of touch, insight, and humour about the vital function of marketing as this man.”
And so Jeremy brought this very special talent to the Presidency of MRS, where he will conclude his five-year term in March 2009. He has been the contributor of much charm, wit, and wisdom to the proceedings of MRS Council. We are delighted to confirm what was said of him in one of his many reviews: “he always brings a much-needed blend of creative thinking, commonsense and crankiness to the grown-up advice he dispenses.”
Equally, as a mentor for our industry, he is uncompromising about standards of workmanship. He has reminded us that we are not mere advocates of research, but advocates only for thorough and outstanding effective research.
He has urged rigour and vigour on both practitioners and users of research, perhaps never more telling than in his President’s message in 2007! “As MRS seeks to reach out to a wider world, there can be no more important constituents to reach than those ultimately responsible for making decisions of quite frightening cost and implications…. For the providers, the agencies, it means they’d better get it right. Slipshod research is even more culpable than slipshod marketing counsel, its potential consequence are more fundamental and more lasting. The responsibility is a heavy one.”
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