WPP CEO Martin Sorrell calls it quits after 33-year in top advertising game

WPP Plc Chief Executive Officer Martin Sorrell is resigning after 33 years, following allegations of personal misconduct and misuse of company assets, marking an abrupt end to a storied career at the top of the advertising industry.

Sorrell, 73, will step aside immediately, according to a statement late Saturday by WPP. Chairman Roberto Quarta becomes executive chairman until the appointment of a new CEO, while Mark Read, who heads WPP agency Wunderman, and Andrew Scott, WPP’s corporate development director, become joint chief operating officers.

It took Sorrell decades to turn a wire shopping basket manufacturer into the world’s largest advertising company, a colossus of more than 400 agencies across 112 countries, counting 200,000 employees. His fall from grace took less than a month after WPP announced April 3 that it was investigating the allegations.