Who are the best-paid people in advertising? Yes, WPP’s Martin Sorrell, Omnicom’s John Wren and Publicis Groupe’s Maurice Levy are on this list.
But who did best, and who took a cut last year?
One of these agency titans received a one-off payment of $21 million in 2012 — and yet he’s still not the best-compensated executive in the business.
Another saw his pay cut by $14.5 million — he had to make ends meet on $9.3 million.
Like last year, our list contains only one woman. And again, they’re almost all white. We say “almost,” because a couple of them have very low industry profiles — so low we can’t find photos of them.
Methodology: Our ranking looked at SEC filings and European corporate disclosures. We counted annual income and stock grants only. That means our ranking doesn’t look at total holdings of stock from years gone by. That’s a flaw because a lot of people on this list hold the vast majority of their net worth in stock they accumulated in previous years. It also doesn’t include executives from private, non-publicly traded agencies. Last year, Aegis was acquired by the non-transparent Japanese company Dentsu, so we replaced those executives on our list with the folks from Sapient and its SapientNitro unit.
Compensation: $544,856
Company: Havas Worldwide (managing director/deputy CEO)
Notes: He's the son of Vincent Bollore, who owns the Bollore/Havas empire. This is his first year on the list.
Compensation: $714,144 (down from $1,669,243)
Company: MDC Partners (CFO)
Compensation: $763,165 (up from $540,678)
Company: Havas Worldwide (CFO)
Compensation: $810,228 (down from $1.6 million)
Company: MDC Partners (General Counsel)
Compensation: $826,122 (down from $1,608,787)
Company: MDC Partners (chief accounting officer)
Compensation: $843,588
Company: MDC Partners (Vice Chairman)
Notes: This is Pustil's first year on the list.
Compensation: $875,381 (down from $983,755)
Company: Havas Worldwide (chief development officer)
Notes: His salary understates his wealth. The Yturbe family owns a chateau in Normandy. This is his first year on the list.
Compensation: $1.2 million (flat from $1,175,682)
Company: Publicis (CFO)
Compensation: $1.2 million (flat from last year)
Company: Omnicom (treasurer)
Notes: Omnicom under-reports who really makes the money in the company. It used to include agency chiefs such as BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson and TBWA Worldwide CEO Tom Carroll, who both earned nearly $9 million two years ago. But in 2012 the company stopped reporting those executives' comp packages in favour of those earned by the corporate officers of its parent company.
Compensation: $1.2 million (down from $1.3 million)
Company: Havas Worldwide (chief creative officer)
Compensation: $1.2 million (down from $1.6 million)
Company: Interpublic Group (Senior Vice President Controller and Chief Accounting Officer)
Compensation: $1.3 million (up from $1.1 million)
Company: Sapient Global Markets (Managing Director)
Notes: First year on the list.
Compensation: $1.5 million (flat from the year before)
Company: Havas (board member)
Notes: Castane, 76, is Spanish advertising royalty. He is the son of the founder of Media Planning S.A., a Spanish media buying agency that was rolled up into Media Planning Group and Havas. Rodés Castañé founded Tiempo, an advertising agency, in 1958.
Compensation: $1.5 million (down from $1.6 million)
Company: Sapient (CFO)
Notes: First year on the list.
Compensation: $1.7 million (down from $1.8 million)
Company: Omnicom (general counsel)
Compensation: $1.7 million (up from $1.3 million)
Company: SapientNitro (Managing Director -- SapientNitro North America and Europe)
Notes: First year on the list.
Compensation: $2 million (up from $1,781,269)
Company: Publicis (COO)
Notes: He is CEO Maurice Levy's presumptive heir.
Compensation: $2.1 million
Company: Interpublic (Senior Vice President General Counsel and Secretary)
Notes: This is Bonzani's first year on the list.
Compensation: $2.1 million (up from $1.2 million)
Company: SapientNitro (Managing Director Asia Pacific)
Notes: First year on the list.
Compensation: $2.1 million (down from $2.5 million)
Company: Omnicom (svp/finance)
Compensation: $2.2 million (up from $1,730,741)
Company: Havas (board member, founder of BETC Euro RSCG)
Notes: She is the only woman on BI's Advertising Rich List--which tells you something about who makes the real money on Madison Avenue.
Compensation: $2.3 million (flat from $2.3 million)
Company: Havas Worldwide (chairman of the board)
Notes: Bollore is a part owner of Havas but draws only an annual 4,000 euro stipend from the company. We took his income from the Bollore Group annual report, a holding company he runs. He exercised an additional $3.3 million in stock and options during the year, and
Forbes puts his net worth at $4 billion, up from $1.6 billion last year. A large part of that increase in wealth came from the sale of Aegis, in which he had a large stake, to Dentsu. he also draws separate compensation from the Bollore conglomerate which he owns.
Compensation: $3.1 million (flat from $2.9 million)
Company: Vivaki (CEO)
Klues retires this year. He had a huge role in setting up Publicis' digital unit.
Compensation: $3.3 million (down from $3.5 million)
Company: Interpublic Group (evp/strategy and talent officer)
Compensation: $3.4 million (up from $2.036 million)
Company: WPP Digital (CEO)
Notes: Read is a potential successor to CEO Martin Sorrell.
Compensation: $3.8 million(down from $4.5 million)
Company: Interpublic (CFO)
Compensation: $4 million (up from $2.1 million)
Company: Havas Worldwide (CEO)
Notes: The agency holding company environment is consolidating, and Havas is another takeover target.
Compensation: $4.2 million
Company: Havas Worldwide (Havas media global CEO)
Notes: First year on the list. He is the brother of Fernando Rodes Vila, for former CEO of Havas Worldwide.
Compensation: $4.5 million (up from $3.9 million)
Company: Saatchi & Saatchi (CEO)
Notes: He earns more on an annual cash basis than his boss, Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy.
Roberts holds no stock in Publicis, unlike any of his peers in management there. He exercised 205,610 options at $28.88 during the year.
Compensation: $6 million (up from $3.7 million)
Company: Sapient (CEO)
Notes: First year on the list.
Compensation: $9.7 million (down from $12.9 million)
Company: (CEO Interpublic Group)
Notes: Roth's pay is artificially high because his compensation 'peer' group includes much larger companies like Disney and CBS.
We've noted before that IPG is often regarded as a takeover target. Roth is actually heavily incentivized to sell the company: he will receive a $23.4 million takeover fee if that happens.
His perks include $20,000 in matched charity donations.
Compensation: $10.6 million (flat from $10.7 million last year)
Company: Omnicom (CFO)
Notes: Weisenberger received $111,590 in personal private jet rides last year.
Compensation: $12.4 million (up from $4.5 million)
Company: WPP (finance director)
Compensation: $14.8 million (down from $15.4 million)
Company: Omnicom (CEO)
Notes: Wren's compensation includes personal use of a private jet ($132,841), and a car allowance ($9,120).
His estate also receives an $8.6 million 'golden coffin' if he dies.
Wren's compensation has been criticised as excessive in the past.
Compensation: $24.4 million (up from $4.5 million)
Company: Publicis Groupe (CEO)
Notes: Most of his compensation is a massive deferred payment of 16 million euros ($21 million) he's earned prior to his imminent (but oft-delayed) retirement. His annual gross for the year of 2.7 million euros was down from last year 3.6 million.
Levy is less well paid on an annual basis than Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts, even though he is Roberts' boss.
Compensation: $27 million (up from $11.6 million last year).
Company: WPP group (CEO)
Notes: In 2013, he took a pay cut after protests from shareholders.
WPP chairman Philip Lader wrote in the company's annual report that Sorrell might soon retire:
'Sir Martin, like all of us, is not immune from being hit by the proverbial bus. And someone having celebrated 68 birthdays, who has routinely worked 80+-hour weeks for 27 years, may one morning decide to start a new venture or even seek to discover what 'weekends' can be like.
That 'elephant' has not been overlooked by your Board.
Succession planning, we recognise, is one of our most fundamental duties.'
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