 Martin Sorrell |
Extracted WPP CEO Martin Sorrell slammed a leak from “the very top of the company” about the probe into his alleged personal misconduct during an event today at the Cannes Lions festival.
“The most damaging thing that happened during the course of those events was the leak over the Easter weekend at the very top of the company, and which to my knowledge there has been no investigation whatsoever,” said Sorrell, according to a report in Reuters.
The leak came ahead of a Wall Street Journal story that WPP's probe included whether Sorrell used corporate funds to pay for a prostitute.
Sorrell has denied any wrongdoing.
The 73-year-old founder of WPP complained that the ad/PR combine hasn’t investigated the nature of the leak, which he called a “fundamental flaw.”
He dismissed allegations published in the Financiai Times that he mistreated WPP staff as “scurrilous and salacious.”
He said: “Am I the easiest person in the world to get along with, you know very well that sometimes I can be difficult, but I would always say difficult with justification."
Sorrell heaped praise on CO-COOs Mark Read and Andrew Scott, who are running the WPP on a temporary basis.
He said they have complementary skills and should be named permanent CO-CEOs.
Sorrell, who plans to use the S4 Capital shell company to build a marketing communications firm, plans to work for the next seven years and then will access whether he wants to continue.
He called S4 a peanut and said some people are allergic to peanuts.
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