At a board meeting in Paris yesterday, the 60-year-old De Pouzilhac resigned as chairman and chief executive with immediate effect. He will continue to sit on the board and will act as a consultant to the group, but the meeting effectively ended his 30-year career at the French advertising group.
As the hunt begins for a new leader for the French advertising group, Havas has installed Richard Colker, the chairman of its audit committee and an independent director of 10 years, to the role in the interim.
Colker, who is managing partner at French investment firm Colker, Gelardin & Co, will be backed by a team of three Havas directors -- Ed Eskandarian, Fernando Rodes, Jacques Seguela -- who will work with him on the group's day-to-day executive functions.
De Pouzilhac is widely expected to be replaced by Jean-Marie Dru, chief executive of TBWA\, who is understood to be Bollore's favoured candidate. Dru has been chief executive of TBWA\ since 2001 and is credited with transforming a disparate group of agencies into a unified global network.
Sure to follow will be speculation about Havas and how long it can remain independent. The French firm is the last of the mid-size ad firms and after several attempts to buy or merge with rivals, Tempus and Grey Global Group being notable, its future seems far from assured.
Bollore is linked to Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP Group chief executive, and the two are reported to have known each other for some time. Sorrell has confirmed that the two had discussed the future of Havas at one point.
De Pouzilhac appeared to be on his way out following Bollore's victory at the Havas annual general meeting where he won four board seats despite opposition from the chief executive.
The two had been attempting to marshal shareholder votes against each other, but it was Bollore, who already controlled 20% of Havas and was its largest shareholder, who won out.
In the days since the June 9 AGM, Bollore has gone on to further strengthen his position at Havas, building his stake to 22.01%.
In addition, Bollore quickly did a deal following the vote with another major investor, Sebastian Holdings, which owns 4% of Havas, to give him control of 26% of the company.
In a statement issued late last night, Havas said: "The board of directors approved the proposal and, therefore, brought to an end Alain de Pouzilhac's term of office as chairman and chief executive officer of Havas. Alain de Pouzilhac will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors and to give the group the benefit of his advice and counsel."
De Pouzilhac's resignation effectively brings to a close a 30-year career at Havas.
Having begun his career at Publicis Groupe, the French advertising company that is now Havas' biggest rival, almost 40 years ago, he had spells at DDB before joining what was Havas Conseil in 1975 when he was named chief executive.
The company, which owns Euro RSCG Worldwide, Arnold Worldwide and the MPG media planning group, was later known as Eurocom before becoming Havas.
De Pouzilhac enjoys sport, particularly soccer, tennis, rugby and yachting, the company said in a biography released to the press. He is married and has three children.
The Havas board it planned to meet again in the near future in order to consider ways of involving Havas' staff in the group's development by means of new equity-based schemes, such as stock-options, bonus shares or other plans.
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