By Danica Kirka
LONDON (AP) --Martin Sorrell is stepping down as chief executive of WPP, the world's largest advertising agency company, following allegations of personal misconduct.
Sorrell, who built WPP into a global brand during his 33 years at the helm, had been accused of misusing company assets. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Sorrell resigned Saturday night as WPP announced that an investigation into the matter had concluded, with the firm saying only that "the allegation did not involve amounts that are material."
"As I look ahead, I see that the current disruption is simply putting too much unnecessary pressure on the business," Sorrell said in a statement to WPP staff. "That is why I have decided that, in your interest, in the interest of our clients, in the interest of all shareowners both big and small, and in the interest of all our other stakeholders, it is best for me to step aside."
Chairman Roberto Quarta will lead the company until a new chief executive has been chosen.
Sorrell is a titan of British business who was named the world's second-best performing CEO in 2017 by the Harvard Business Review. He took a U.K. manufacturer of wire baskets and built it into a worldwide provider of advertising, public relations and marketing services through a series of takeovers.
The acquisitions included the J. Walter Thompson Group, the Young & Rubicam Group and the Ogilvy Group.
He was richly compensated for his efforts.
Sorrell was the highest-paid CEO among FTSE 100 companies in both 2015 and 2016, according to a study released last year by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the High Pay Centre. He received 70.4 million pounds ($100.3 million) in salary, bonuses, incentive rewards, pension payments and other benefits in 2015, and 48.1 million pounds in 2016, the study found.
"If WPP does well, I do well," he told the Press Association in April 2016. "Most of my wealth, if not all of it, is and has been for the last 31 years tied up in the success of WPP. So if WPP does well, I do well, and others in the company do well. If we do badly, we suffer."
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More