Arthur Sadoun, the CEO of Publicis Groupe, has received a 17% raise in his basic salary, the first in five years since he took the helm on June 1, 2017.
His prospective bonus and long-term share award will both benefit from the increase in his base compensation from €1 million to €1.17 million per year.
Sadoun, who also serves as chairman of the management board, is eligible for an annual short-term incentive of up to 200 percent of his income and a long-term share award of up to 300 percent of his pay.
The French agency group has introduced a new “over-performance” provision to a portion of Sadoun’s short-term incentive tied to organic growth and profit margin, meaning that if the company exceeds its expectations, Sadoun might receive an additional 20%.
This raises the potential for a short-term incentive to 214 percent of pay. Sadoun earned €2.9 million last year, including €1 million in salary and €1.9 million in short-term incentive, as Publicis Groupe reported record 2021 earnings.
He’s also been given €3.6 million in unvested shares that are conditional on long-term success over the following three years.
In a vote at the annual general meeting in Paris on May 25, Publicis shareholders accepted the remuneration plans. The CEO of Publicis Groupe is paid less than his American counterparts.
Sadoun’s new base compensation of €1.17 million (about $1.25 million) remains below the median of about €1.25 million for CEOs of listed firms on the main French stock market, the CAC 40, according to the company’s annual report.
According to the annual report, Publicis Groupe’s overall salary for its CEO is still lower than that of many of its competitors.
This is especially true of Omnicom and Interpublic. Although he has the lowest base income among the key holding company CEOs, John Wren, chairman and chief executive of Omnicom since 1997, is the best paid of the main holding company CEOs.
Since 2002, Wren has been paid a $1 million annual salary for the past two decades. His overall 2021 compensation package, including bonuses and stock awards, was about $20 million.
Philippe Krakowsky, Interpublic’s CEO since January 2021, earns a base pay of $1.5 million and a total 2021 package of $17.4 million, including bonuses and stock awards.
Mark Read, WPP’s CEO since 2018, has a base remuneration of £1.04 million ($1.3 million), up 6.7 percent from £975,000 in June 2021 – his first raise in nearly three years.
Read received a total package worth £3.8 million in 2021, which included £2.6 million in short-term bonuses.
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