WPP is the second largest marketing communications services company in the world. It owns advertising giants J Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Grey and hundreds of other companies. As a holding company, WPP is a relatively small outfit just behind Berkeley Square, though the companies it owns employ tens of thousands globally. Nevertheless, the announcement by high profile CEO Sir Martin Sorrell that he is considering a move to tax-friendly Ireland should send a chill up someone's spine in Downing Street....well, if they could find somebody with one that is.
(Then again, there's a little matter of 'tax harmonisation' that will eventually catch up with the Irish, so Sir Martin might want to rent rather than buy.)
Interestingly, Gordon Brown's new chief marketing officer and chief of staff, colon-dweller Stephen Carter, is an alumnus of WPP-owned J Walter Thompson where he distinguished himself by losing an embarrassing string of high-profile clients as MD, before leaving to join Thompson client ntl. Carter deftly guided ntl into record-setting bankruptcy then set his sights on the public sector, overseeing Ofcom while the industry he regulated ripped off the public with orgiastic abandon.
Fitting then, that he should find himself where he does. Maybe he can catch up with his old boss sometime soon....
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