In April, Publicis Groupe announced that it would ask shareholders at its upcoming annual meeting to a adopt a new governance structure, replacing its current supervisory board and a separate management board (called the Directoire) with a single board of directors.
Now the Groupe has added detail about some of the key roles and who would fill them if the proposed new structure is approved at the annual meeting on May 29.
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Andre Kudelski would be appointed lead director on the new board. He is the chairman and CEO of Swiss technology firm Kudelski Group and has been on the Publicis Supervisory board since 2016.
His role would include presiding over executive sessions, supervising the evaluation of the board of directors and being a key point of contact for shareholders, among other duties.
The firm also laid out proposed appointments for key committees (Nomination, Remuneration, Audit and Financial Risk, Strategic, Environmental & Social).
As previously announced current CEO Arthur Sadoun would become chairman of the new board in addition to his CEO role. Élisabeth Badinter, vice chair of the current supervisory board would become vice chair of the new board (she is the daughter of Publicis Groupe Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet).
And former Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy, current chairman of the supervisory board, would become chairman emeritus, Publicis Groupe.
Lévy proposed the shift to the streamlined governing structure (unanimously endorsed by Supervisory Board) as the optimal way to maintain the company’s momentum and growth in the future.