Has the little Napoleon of ad men (who loathes Brexit) finally lost his magic touch?

FOR more than three decades Sir Martin Sorrell has luxuriated in the kind of influence that monarchs can only dream of. His position as boss of WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group, which he built out of an obscure Kentbased manufacturer of wire baskets and runs it with an iron grip, has been unchallenged for all that time. The firm’s success has provided him with a platform from which he has made himself as wellknown for his pontificating on global matters, especially on Brexit – he is an arch Remainer – as for his vast remuneration. Even when the company’s shareholders were rebuking him over his ‘obscene’ pay packet, he arrogantly took to the airwaves to justify the sum. But then the self-regarding Sir Martin can rarely resist the lure of an outstretched microphone to burnish his credentials as ad-land’s most famous figure. Such has been his exalted position, his fans in the City have imbued him with a near mythical status as a man who, if not capable of moving markets, can certainly nudge them in the right direction with a trademark quote. But yesterday Sorrell’s once unassailable position was under threat after it emerged that the WPP board had hired a slew of leading London law firms to investigate an allegation of personal misconduct and improper use of company funds. The details are sketchy, but one strand of investigation is understood to involve air tickets and travel expenditure. According to an insider who has been briefed on the situation, the claims have been made by a whistleblower who is described as a ‘credible witness’. Sir Martin has rejected the allegations ‘unreservedly’. Even so with WPP’s share price at its lowest point in five years, down almost 40 per cent in the past year, voices already starting to question Sorrell’s leadership have now become louder. But then he has fought his way out of tight spots before, notably following his audacious move to buy the Ogilvy & Mather agency in 1989. Following on the heels of his hostile swoop on the world’s oldest ad group, JWT, this made Sorrell a global force in advertising. The arrival of a bean counter into the world of Mad Men was not well received. The takeover prompted David Ogilvy – regarded as the father of modern advertising – to label Sorrell an ‘odious little s***’ who had ‘never written an advertisement in his life’.

BuTWPP grew relentlessly, gobbling up rivals and lining the pockets of investors along the way. It has 134,000 employees in more than 100 countries.

At the same time Sorrell – whose personal stake is worth about £250million – has benefited from hugely controversial reward schemes netting him hundreds of millions in payouts in recent years. His £70.4million pay packet in 2015 was one of the biggest in British corporate history. Yet Sir Martin, who was educated at fee-paying Haberdashers’ Aske’s school in North London, where he was friends with TV historian Simon Schama and former Tate Gallery boss Sir Nicholas Serota, remains a remarkably touchy figure – he was once described as driven by a ‘classic Napoleon complex’, as much for his intense ambition as his diminutive stature.

His £30million divorce from first wife Sandra in 2005 is one deal he does not boast about. In what was then a record settlement in the British courts, Sorrell pledged half his personal stake in WPP as security against personal loans, while Lady Sorrell received assets including a four- storey Georgian townhouse and two spaces in the Harrods underground car park.

The marriage, which lasted 33 years, produced three sons. But the court heard that Sorrell’s work commitments made him a ‘father by appointment’. In her submission, Lady Sorrell said her husband ‘marginalised’ and ‘dehumanised’ her, ‘discarded her from his affections and took a mistress’.

He went on to marry Cristiana Falcone, a glamorous Italian nearly 30 years his junior, with whom he has a 16-month-old daughter.

Divorce was not the only time the Sorrell halo slipped. In 2008 he shifted WPP’s headquarters from London to Dublin, blaming new laws governing taxation of overseas profits. The company did not return for four years.

Criticism was brushed aside, just as it was three years ago when he was accused of ‘whitewashing’ Egypt’s record on human rights after WPP organised a major economics conference which critics claimed distracted the global media from reporting ‘negative’ news about the country.

It was attended by 30 heads of state and featured addresses from speakers including Tony Blair. According to a study published on WPP’s website, the conference resulted in the successful ‘rebranding’ of Egypt and built confidence in the regime of President Sisi, who seized power after a coup in 2013.

For perma-tanned Sorrell, who was knighted in 2000 for services to the communications industry, this was all grist to the mill.

He adopted the same robust approach when that £70million pay packet was challenged by WPP shareholders, and again in 2015, when it emerged that his expense account amounted to £453,000, including £274,000 to allow his wife to accompany him on business trips. Dismissing the furore, he loftily argued that investors had profited from his management of the company.

But this year the magic touch seems to be deserting him. It began with unwelcome headlines as WPP was revealed as a key backer of the now infamous Presidents Club annual dinner, a charitable gala event on Park Lane where women working at the event claimed they were harassed and groped.

SIRMartin insisted that he had never seen anything like that, but nevertheless cut all ties with the charity. It also emerged that he was among key Remainers backing a campaign spearheaded by billionaire George Soros to overturn Brexit.

But with the company reporting its weakest year for growth since 2009, the greatest scrutiny has come over WPP’s financial performance and 73-year-old Sorrell’s perceived failure to plan for his own succession.

One feature of the mogul’s years at the top – he is the longest serving CEO in the FTSE 100 index by more than ten years – has been his political agility. Which was why observers were so surprised by an indiscreet remark about Theresa May, delivered at a breakfast conference in Claridge’s last month.

In the corporate world, he declared, she would not be a chief executive. Instead, he suggested, she might have a lower role as a chief operating officer.

The question being asked in the City last night was how much longer Sir Martin Sorrell will have his own seat at the top table.