LONDON (Brand Republic) – WPP Group chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell is believed to be looking further afield for a new chairman, after shareholders gave a negative response to the idea of appointing Sir Christopher Lewinton.
Sir Christopher, who is the outgoing chairman of industrial giant T1 Group, has not been ruled out for the post, but Sir Martin has received calls from shareholders expressing their concern over press reports speculating on Sir Christopher’s appointment.
The T1 Group is poised to be merged with rival company Smiths Industries and Sir Christopher will remain a consultant if the merger goes ahead. However, he has been criticised recently for the company’s poor share-price performance and will see his payoff reduced to £2.74m from the £6m previously expected.
Although Sir Christopher’s appointment at WPP had not been officially announced, it was widely thought that he was WPP’s and Sorrell’s first choice as replacement for the current chairman Hamish Maxwell.
Sir Christopher joined WPP’s board as one of three non-executive board directors of Young & Rubicam, which was bought by WPP earlier this year. Sir Martin is understood to have promised that the new chairman would come from the Y&R side of the company.