Advertising supremo Sir Martin Sorrell today sounded a fresh warning about the European economy, declaring France is now “a big worry” and “we may just be halfway through a lost decade”.
The WPP chief executive was speaking to Management Today, which will name him the UK’s Most Admired Leader for 2012 at its awards on Wednesday.
Sorrell, pictured, who runs the world’s biggest ad group, owner of agencies such as JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, said staff want to leave Western Europe.
“We’ve got really good people in excellent companies there who are asking to go to Brazil or India.” But he is “very bullish” on Germany, Poland and Russia.
The WPP boss dismissed shareholder advisory groups which opposed his £13 million pay package and accused them of double standards when it came to US rival Omnicom.
“They’ve got an 83-year-old chairman who used to be CEO, directors with an average age of 60 and length of service of 14 years and they just get a [governance] tick!”
Sorrell, 67, insisted he does not regard WPP as “my own personal fiefdom”, and won’t retire. “I’m drained at the end of a week and collapse in a heap,” he admitted, but “I get more out of it now than ever”.
Read More
MORE ABOUT