John Wren and Maurice Levy: Co-CEOs From Very Different Backgrounds
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They’re both men of stature, physically and professionally. The very tall heads of Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe, John Wren and Maurice Levy, have been running the No. 2 and No. 3 ad firms by revenue for years.
Also in common has been their desire to outdo WPP CEO Martin Sorrell (which they arguably just pulled off, with their agreement to merge Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group and supplant WPP as the largest marketing services company in the world with $23 billion in revenues).
But that’s where their similarities seem to end. Their management styles have always been different as their approaches to running a holding company. Consider their positions historically on the matter of the one of the primary concerns for any marketer today — best-in-class digital marketing. While Mr. Levy has spent billions snapping up massive companies like Digitas, Razorfish, Rosetta, LBI and Rokkan, Mr. Wren stood on the sidelines and told Wall Street that Omnicom would prefer to build digital organically versus buying it.
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