Saatchi’s exec chairman Kevin Roberts ordered to take immediate leave after diversity comments
Following controversial comments made by Saatchi & Saatchi Executive Chairman and Publicis Groupe Head Coach, Kevin Roberts, in a recent interview with Business Insider, Publicis Groupe Chairman & CEO, Maurice Lévy addressed a statement internally to all Publicis Groupe employees to reiterate the Groupe`s no-tolerance policy towards behavior or commentary counter to the spirit of Publicis Groupe.
The statement: “It is for the gravity of these statements that Kevin Roberts has been asked to take a leave of absence from Publicis Groupe effective immediately. As a member of The Directoire, it will ultimately be the Publicis Groupe Supervisory Board`s duty to further evaluate his standing.
“Diversity & inclusion are business imperatives on which Publicis Groupe will not negotiate. While fostering a work environment that is inclusive of all talent is a collective responsibility, it is leadership`s job to nurture the career aspirations and goals of all our talent. Promoting gender equality starts at the top and the Groupe will not tolerate anyone speaking for our organization who does not value the importance of inclusion. Publicis Groupe works very hard to champion diversity and will continue to insist that each agency`s leadership be champions of both diversity and inclusion.”
Adds Robert Senior, worldwide CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi: “Kevin has given what are his personal views on the subject of gender diversity. However, those views are not mine, and nor are they the position of the agency.
“Saatchi & Saatchi is, and has always been, a meritocracy. We live and die by our people, our talent, and it makes no difference to us whether that talent is male or female. Indeed, I’m very proud to be able to say that 65 per cent of our staff are female, and it is to our great benefit that we have women in senior leadership roles across our business.
“However, the issue of gender diversity is not in any way over for our industry. It is live, emotive and vital for the communications business that we continue to insist that the best people, whatever their gender, are able to achieve their potential. This is what we strive for at Saatchi & Saatchi, and is what we will continue to strive for alongside all of the best agencies in our industry.”
From 1989 to 1997, Roberts was director and chief operating officer of Lion Nathan, based in New Zealand before being appointed CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, splitting his time between New York and Auckland. Roberts became executive chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi in 2015, then non-executive chairman in 2016.
14 Comments
The man is an embarrassment to this industry. His refusal to move with the times has been laughable over the last 5 years but this was a new low.
A sad end to his career but an ending he has brought onto himself. I just wonder how tainted by their leader the entire Saatchi’s network is going to be. If I was a female client of theirs I would be feeling less than positive about having them as my agency.
He’s right.
After all my years on adland, I have yet to come across one single conversation where men have come together in a deliberate manner to exclude females from absolutely anything.
There is no conspiracy.
There are no clandestine meetings.
There’s no secret society.
Kevin’s comments were dumb, and yes I think he’s a complete cock of the highest order (yip, I’ve worked with him), but the only glass ceiling I’ve ever seen is the one where people, men and women, realise that this business isn’t worth the stress and there are better ways to make a living or live one’s life.
Because females tend to be the stay at home mothers, they get to this realisation quicker than men, whom keep working until burnout or health problems.
I hope Kevin has a wonderful retirement.
What are the controversial statements he made?
I really can’t see anything that warrants such a knee jerk reaction.
Is it the comment about Cindy Gallop?
As all he seems to have said beyond that is that in his experience lots of senior female creatives opp out of CD roles when they’re offered.
Are we suggesting that their decisions are wrong? Seems like a patronising perspective to question the decisions of 1000s of women who opp for work/life balance.
I’m not sure why we are suppose to be convincing women to take another road.
Surely they are the ones making the smart decision.
I’m genuinely finding his whole debate so strange as anyone who thinks the role of CD is some giant enviable party has clearly never been one as just about every CD I know would rather be a well paid Senior Creative any day.
Skidmarks.
I think this has been massively blown out of proportion. Saatchi’s has a strong female leadership team and he’s just saying that there are some people that don’t care as much about getting to the top. And that’s OK, isn’t it?
I am a female and I honestly don’t see what all the fuss is about.
2/3 creative women in his group don’t want to become CD. Yeah right.
Having read the interview I agree with ‘Really?’ – blown way out of proportion! What’s going on?! Surely it’s about the talent of the individual. Both women & men have the right to turn down a CD role based on what-ever reason.
Let’s move on. Tired of hearing about gender issues in our business (and yes, I’m a female).
Feels like they’ve been looking for an excuse to get rid of him and took their chance.
What an absolute load of rubbish. Nothing he has said is that contentious.
The real question is why Maurice Levy hasn’t been put on leave as none of his shortlisted successors over the last 5 years have been women.
Maybe a guy that just talks the talk !
Well.. The point is that he is probably out of touch and not at all right. Right?
Also who is the Rich White Man to comment on gender equality issues? He just found an OK-ish way to make it sound like he kind of had a point. But he just isn’t qualified to say that. Unless he is backed up by women who have worked for him who agree with the statement its got zero validity.
One of the biggest barriers to change is people not believing there is an issue in the first place.
Even more embarrassing has been the behaviour of some female agency owners and creatives over the past 48 hours. My Facebook feed has been inundated with vile and hatred. If a guy said half the things they’ve said…
This business must be making me either very tough skinned or extremely stupid because I can’t quite understand the fuss either. Seems we are all a bit over sensitive these days. It was a load of drivel and his interview wandered around aimlessly for some time but surely that’s not a fireable offence. And yes I am a woman.
The lack of active conspiracy doesn’t mean that the odds aren’t stacked against females trying to achieve their full potential.
So IMHO we can and should choose to foster and encourage the growth of minorities to ensure they get a seat at the table. I’d argue this was the part the KR failed at.
The most interesting part for me is that anyone is surprised by the fact that he said this. Anyone with minimal exposure to the guy already knows what cloth he is cut from.