Saatchi boss Roberts to step down after sexism row

PARIS (Reuters): French advertising giant Publicis said Kevin Roberts, the Chairman of its Saatchi & Saatchi business, would resign on 1 September after the veteran advertising boss said some women lacked “vertical ambition”.

Roberts, the British-born executive, sparked a sexism row after he was quoted in an interview as saying that he doesn’t spend any time on gender issues as the gender diversity debate was over in the advertising world.

“The Supervisory Board and the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe took note of Kevin Robert’s decision to step down with effect from 1 September 2016, prior to his retirement date due in May 2017,” Publicis said in a statement.

Publicis had this week asked Roberts to take an immediate leave of absence as the group did not tolerate “anyone speaking for our organisation who does not value the importance of inclusion”.

In an interview with the Business Insider website, Roberts said that some women at key junctures in their careers did not want to lead businesses and people, and that managers should reflect on how to deal with the ambitions of female and male employees who “simply want to be happy and do great work”.

“Their ambition is not a vertical ambition, it’s this intrinsic, circular ambition to be happy,” Roberts was quoted as saying by Business Insider.

“So they say: ‘We are not judging ourselves by those standards that you idiotic dinosaur-like men judge yourself by’.