MPRM Sets Succession Plan As Co-Founder Rachel McCallister Steps Aside After 40-Year PR Career

EXCLUSIVE: Entertainment PR firm MPRM Communications is restructuring its core leadership team, pressing go on a succession plan with the news that the company’s chairman and co-founder Rachel McCallister is stepping aside after four decades in the industry.

MPRM said that Sylvia Desrochers and company veterans Caitlin McGee and Natalie Yallouz are being promoted to EVP, joining co-founder and president Mark Pogachefsky in running the company. As part of the restructure, Lisa Bustamante becomes an SVP and will be integral to the senior management team. McCallister will segue to a consultant role.

“These promotions reflect the confidence we have in Caitlin, Sylvia, Natalie and Lisa to guide MPRM forward and a recognition of the role they have played over the last two years successfully navigating the challenges presented by a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” Pogachefsky said. “Working side by side with Rachel McCallister these past 30 years has been a real privilege and I’m incredibly proud of what she and I built together. We look forward to availing ourselves of her knowledge and insight as she moves into this new role.”

McCallister will remain a consultant to the firm she started with Pogachefsky in 1998, capping a career that began in the Film & Television division of Rogers & Cowan. She eventually exited ther in 1988 to launch Rachel McCallister & Associates. Ten years later she fused her shop with KillerApp Communications and The Pogachefsky Company to create MPRM.

She was awarded the Publicists Guild’s Les Mason Award in 1993 and has served as a governor for the Publicist Branch of the Television Academy.

Desrochers joined MPRM in 2019 when she closed her agency Big Time. Her recent projects include repping the pics Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, You Are Not My Mother, You Won’t Be Alone, Bring Your Own Brigade, Mayor Pete and Rebel Hearts. She also works with corporate clients including the USC Libraries Scripter Awards, Slamdance, No Studios, Cinetic Media, Foothill Productions, Mubi and the American Pavilion in Cannes. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

McGee, who has been with MPRM for 15 years, leads publicity efforts for clients across TV, streaming and home entertainment that include Netflix, Crackle, FXX, Showtime, DreamWorks Animation Television, NBC, TV One, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Disney Studios Home Entertainment. She also leads the TV awards team overseeing FYC campaigns and submissions for clients like AMC Networks, Starz and Sony Pictures Television, as well as indie producers and directors. She is a member of the Television Academy,

Yallouz, who has been with MPRM a total of 11 years, spearheads publicity efforts for the company’s corporate, digital media, audio entertainment and technology clients. Current and past clients include Crackle Plus, Snap Inc, Bunim/Murray Productions, Wrapbook, Stampede Ventures, Disney Consumer Products and Crewvie among others.

Bustamante oversees and manages publicity campaigns for MPRM’s TV, digital and events clients including NBC, Adult Swim and FXX as well as editorial awards campaigns for Sony Television and Property Brothers. She is also a member of the Television Academy.