Sir Martin Sorrell’s iron grip as chief executive of WPP is under threat after the advertising group hired a law firm to investigate an allegation of personal misconduct.
Sorrell is one of Britain’s best-known and most highly paid business leaders. He is also the longest-serving FTSE-100 chief executive and has run the sprawling WPPempire since starting the business in 1985.
In the last five years alone Sorrell has been paid well over £200m for running the world’s largest advertising group thanks to lucrative and highly controversial reward schemes. His £70m payout in 2015 was one of the biggest in UK corporate history.
The investigation will increase pressure on Sorrell, who is already feeling the strain as WPP’s share price has tumbled almost 40% in the last year to its lowest point since 2013.
The price slump has wiped £9bn off the value of the business, which owns 406 separate advertising and marketing firms in more than 100 countries, including top-flight brands such as Ogilvy & Mather and J Walter Thompson. It has 134,000 staff.
WPP recently reported its worst performance since the advertising recession in 2009, which Sorrell described as “not a pretty year”.
