• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 12, 2019

Just in time for today’s WPP annual meeting, S4 Capital — led, as I’m sure you’re aware, by former WPP boss Martin Sorrell — has announced the hiring of WPP veteran Scott Spirit as Chief Growth Officer. Spirit will also join the S4 board of directors.

Spirit was with WPP for 15 years, including a stint as Chief Strategy and Digital Officer. He left shortly after Sorrell’s abrupt exit as CEO in April 2018.

Most recently, Spirit was with Eureka AI, where he’ll continue to be an advisor and board member. At S4, he will focus on clients, M&A and investor relations, and will be based out of the company’s newly opened Singapore office.

S4 also said it was adding a new non-executive board member — Elizabeth Buchanan, a 25-year advertising and marketing veteran who previously served with WPP, OMD and most recently martech company rokt. She also founded a digital agency called The White Agency.

At the WPP meeting, the company said that its three-year transformation plan was proceeding apace and that it was sticking with previously stated financial targets for 2019.

The company also said it remained on track to seal a deal for the sale of a majority stake in research arm Kantar by the end of the month, but offered no further details.

It was previously reported that four bids were being considered, including offers from private-equity firms Bain Capital, Apollo, Platinum and Vista Equity Partners, whose founder, Robert F. Smith, just promised to pay the outstanding loans of this year’s graduating class at Morehouse College.

I wonder what the juniors thought of that?