“He’s taken ‘the floor’! It’s a coup d'état!” Maurice Lévy joked as he interrupted Arthur Sadoun, who had just started to address Publicis Groupe’s annual general meeting, before Lévy, the chair, had formally invited the chief executive to speak by “giving him the floor”.
“That’s what power-taking is all about,” Lévy chuckled, breaking into a huge grin and beaming at Sadoun.
Lévy was on stage to chair his final AGM after 37 years—30 as CEO and seven as chair of the supervisory board.
It was a “big day”, Lévy told Campaign before the meeting, recalling he first became a board member in 1981.
Publicis and Lévy, who joined in 1971, have a strong sense of history. Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet founded the agency in 1926 and led it for 60 years, and his daughter, Élisabeth Badinter, remains a director.
Badinter sat at Lévy’s right hand on the stage at the AGM, which was held in a public cinema underneath Publicis Groupe’s grand headquarters, next to the Arc de Triomphe, on Wednesday (29 May).
When Lévy opened proceedings just after 10 a.m. and told the 300-strong audience that he was chairing for “la dernière fois,” there was a little ripple of dismay around the room. “Oh!”, “Oh!” muttered a few shareholders.
Lévy, who is 82 and remains a dynamic and imposing figure with a full head of coiffured silver hair, is one of the biggest beasts of French business and global advertising.
This AGM marked the end of an era as he was giving up his seat on the board, although he will continue to attend board meetings as an adviser in a new role as chairman emeritus.
Charisma and force of will
There was a sustained round of applause after Lévy delivered his opening address, in which he talked about his pride in Publicis’ past and confidence in its future. “Bravo!” one shareholder exclaimed.
As the meeting went on and other directors gave presentations, Lévy still commanded the room—through a mix of charisma, force of will, wit and charm.
“I am seizing back ‘the floor’,” Lévy declared theatrically at one point, stretching out his hand towards Jean Charest, another director, who had just finished speaking, and then snatching it back – as if he were grabbing a magical energy force for himself in his clenched fist.
Lévy also had the confident air of a man whose reputation has grown with time.
After handing the CEO’s reins to Sadoun in 2017, Lévy stayed on to give guidance and ensure a smooth succession—in contrast to WPP, which suffered from Sir Martin Sorrell’s abrupt exit as CEO in 2018.
Under Sadoun’s leadership, Publicis has expanded in digital, data and commerce and eclipsed WPP and other rivals such as Omnicom since the pandemic to become the world’s most valuable agency group with a €27 billionn ($29.5 billion) valuation.
Publicis was the best-performing agency stock, up 41% last year, as a Campaign headline displayed on the cinema screen during the AGM reminded shareholders, and the share price broke through €100 ($ 108.37) for the first time in March of this year.
Patriotic about a French company
An AGM is a formal occasion, particularly in France, where even a representative of the external auditors gave a presentation, and there were serious issues on the agenda.
Publicis asked shareholders to approve a plan to simplify the corporate structure and move to a single board, which meant the supervisory board, chaired by Lévy, and the management board, led by Sadoun, would effectively be combined.
Even so, there was an upbeat atmosphere on this rainy May morning, given the company’s recent strong performance, and there was more than a hint of patriotism.
Ads for mainly French brands such as Orange, Renault, Lancôme, and Cartier played on the screen before the AGM began, and Sadoun praised Agathe Bousquet, the head of Publicis in France, in the front row.
A slide illustrated with a huge French flag showed how the group’s domestic business grew 11% last year, and its ad for Orange for the national women’s football team, Les Bleues, has been a viral hit.
Yet big shareholders know Lévy’s legacy has been to turn Publicis from a small, French player in European advertising, with 3,000 staff when he started as CEO in 1987, to a global player, with over 103,000 employees and 60% of its revenues from North America.
“We are here to serve the company.”
Sadoun paid homage to his old boss by showing archive photos, including a snap of the pair in ski gear in 2006 (see picture above).
However, fittingly, Lévy was the star of his final show.
He showed a degree of humility as he noted he was standing down voluntarily one year early as chair. “We should not forget … we are here to serve the company,” he said in a telling response to an audience question.
When shareholders voted 95% in favour of the move to one board, Lévy looked relieved and clapped more enthusiastically than anyone.
The vote might have seemed like a fait accompli, but proxy advisers, who make recommendations to external shareholders, aren’t always guaranteed to be supportive.
One advisory group opposed Sadoun’s new, dual role as chairman and chief executive on corporate governance grounds, and 22% of shareholders voted against the appointment. However, it still passed easily with almost 78% approval.
Lévy, feisty to the last, condemned the advisory group's decision as a “total absurdity” as he closed the two-and-a-half-hour meeting.
“Very happy”
While the other directors departed, a smiling Lévy stayed on to shake hands with shareholders and staff for another 10 minutes.
No one inside Publicis thinks Lévy will disappear after 53 years of service and counting.
“À bientôt,” he said cheerily to a couple of shareholders, meaning they expected to see each other soon.
Yet this AGM was a moment of finality. Few leaders in any business, not just advertising, get to step down on such an elegant high after so long.
Future challenges, such as the rise of artificial intelligence – about which both Sadoun and Lévy were optimistic – were for another day.
As Lévy walked up the cinema stairs, a security guard preceding him to part the way through the last of the crowd, Campaign asked if he was happy with the job he had done.
“I am very happy,” Lévy replied.
This story was first published in Campaign UK.
