• by Steve McClellan , June 1, 2021

Publicis Groupe Advisory Board Chairman Maurice Lévy has agreed to a new contract that will keep him in his current post for another four years.

The agreement was announced last week at the company’s annual meeting. Lévy, 79, was previously the Groupe’s long-time CEO. He assumed his current post four years ago when Arthur Sadoun succeeded him as CEO and chairman of the management board.

In a statement the company indicated that the Board wanted Lévy to “continue his mission as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and continue to provide support and advice to the Management Board and to its Chairman, Mr. Arthur Sadoun, who expressed the same wish.”  

Lévy stated, “my attachment to the Group no longer needs to be demonstrated after a journey of fifty years which has allowed me to experience the various stages in the development of Publicis, which rose to the 3nd in the world and has become a leader in digital and data. It is therefore with an intact enthusiasm (although it was not in my plans) that I will continue my mission at the service of the company and all its stakeholders.”

Sadoun reported at the meeting that the company expects to post organic growth for the second quarter of between 8% and 10%. In the first quarter the firm reported organic growth of 2.8%.

The Supervisory Board is composed of 13 members, 55% of whom are women, and two members representing the employees. The majority of the board (64%) is comprised of independent members.

CEO Sadoun was reconfirmed as chairman of the four-person management board which also includes Chief Operating Officer Steve King (COO), Secretary General Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner and Group Finance Director Michel-Alain Proch, who succeeds the former finance chief Jean-Michel Etienne.