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LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - Britain's WPP hasstarted identifying candidates both inside and outside of thefirm to replace founder and veteran CEO Martin Sorrell forwhenever he leaves the world's biggest advertising company.
One of the highest profile businessmen in Britain,71-year-old Sorrell has run the company since 1986, taking itfrom a two-man operation in a London office to one that nowdominates the industry with around 190,000 staff working in 112countries.
The issue of who will replace Sorrell has long interestedinvestors and on Friday the firm's chairman, Roberto Quarta,used his first annual report to update them after the reportsaid last year that the process was becoming "steadily morerigorous and comprehensive".
"At some point we all leave our jobs," Quarta said. "Thequestion is when.
"Whether, in Sir Martin's case, that happens tomorrow, inone, two, three, four or five years, or even over a longerperiod, we have already begun to identify internal and externalcandidates who should be considered."
As part of the succession process, Quarta said the chairmanand independent board members had for some time met with seniorstaff to discuss who could succeed their chief executive.
When asked about his future, Sorrell tends to say that hewill stay for as long as the firm wants him.
The owner of agencies including Ogilvy & Mather and JWT, WPPhas outperformed its rivals in recent years due to its broadgeographic spread and experience in digital marketing.
As a result, Sorrell was paid 70 million pounds ($102million) in 2015 following the end of a now discontinuedlong-term incentive scheme.
With investors starting to rebel over the remunerationpolicies of many large firms, the company defended the package,saying the scheme had been approved by shareholders andreflected the long-term performance of the company.
"While the value of Sir Martin Sorrell's award is verylarge, it was the result of an outstanding set of returns toshare owners," the report said.
The company said the incentive scheme had covered the periodfrom 2011 to 2015 when WPP's share price rose by more than 95percent, outperforming the wider FTSE by a large margin. ($1 = 0.6840 pounds) (Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
