Sorrell ‘not embarrassed’ by £70m pay

THE boss of giant advertising firm WPP has said he is not ashamed by the success of the company, which has seen him pocket around £70m a year.

Media mogul Martin Sorrell said: ‘I’m not embarrassed about the growth of the company from two people in one room in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1985 to 190,000 people in 112 countries and a leadership position in our industry which I think is important.

‘Everything that I have is invested in the company and continues to be, actually. Even this year it’s all been invested or reinvested or kept in the company so it’s really pay for performance over a long term of more than 30 years.’

Yesterday WPP reported revenues up 10.5pc to £3bn with a 6.7pc rise in sales for the first quarter of 2016. It is due to publish an annual report today which will reval that Sorrell will earn around £70m, including a basic salary of £1.2m and pension contributions of around £450,000. Sorrell, who lives in a £5m property in central London is expected to get £180,000 in perks for 2015.

He is entitled to £1.5m in lieu of dividends on shares he put off taking in 1995, and is also due to get a second bonus if he meets short-term targets. The amount has not yet been disclosed, but in previous years it has hit £3.59m.

Sorrell has overseen WPP’s rise to become the biggest advertising group in the world over 31 years. Yesterday its shares rose 0.7pc, or 12p, to 1628p.