The business may have contracted almost two per cent in 2019, but that didn’t stop WPP boss Mark Read pocketing a cool £2.6 million ($5.01 million) in pay and bonuses for the year.
According to reports on UK industry site PR Week, WPP’s annual report shows Read received £975,000 ($A1.89 million) salary, £1.3 ($A2.52 million) million in short-term incentive and £71,000 ($A137,000) in long-term incentive for 2019.
Read’s short-term bonus was 55 per cent of the maximum potential last year. The long-term incentive paid out was only 15 per cent of the maximum because the company’s revenues and share price had continued to drop over a five-year period.
Even the ghost of Sir Martin Sorrell still haunts WPP’s corridors. He may have been ousted from the CEO role back in April 2018 but even he received collected £517,000 ($A1.02 million) worth of shares in the 2019 calendar year.
WPP’s revenues were down 1.6 per cent in 2019 – its third annual fall in a row. However, under Read the share price rose from £8.50 to £10 over the course of the year.
The annual report also revealed who was on Read’s 19-strong executive committee that he established in a hope to improve communication among the group and its 110,000 global employees. They include:
John Rogers, CFO designate, WPP
Ajaz Ahmed, CEO of AKQA
Stephen Allan, worldwide chairman and CEO of MediaCom
Jacqui Canney, chief people officer
Jon Cook, global CEO of VMLY&R
Mel Edwards, global CEO of Wunderman Thompson
Nick Emery, global CEO of Mindshare
Laurent Ezekiel, chief marketing and growth officer, WPP
Richard Glasson, global CEO of Hogarth
Andrea Harris, group chief counsel
Michael Houston, global CEO of Grey
Donna Imperato, global CEO of BCW
Toby Jenner, global CEO of Wavemaker
Christian Juhl, global CEO of Group M
Lindsay Pattison, chief client officer, WPP
Stephan Pretorius, chief technology officer, WPP
Andrew Scott, COO, WPP
John Seifert, outgoing global CEO of Ogilvy
