We invited Thorold Barker, the Wall Street Journal Editor for EMEA to have a fireside chat with Sir Martin Sorrell.

Sir Martin Sorrell is Founder and Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc, which is building a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands

Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. When Sir Martin left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalization of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion ($20 billion), profits of approximately £2 billion, and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Prior to that, Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi plc for 9 years and worked for James Gulliver, Mark McCormack, and Glendinning Associates before that.

S4 Capital plc merged with MediaMonks, its content practice, in July 2018, and MightyHive, its programmatic practice, in December 2018 and has added eight further content programmatic and data companies to both practices in 2019, six in 2020 and four in January 2021. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange under SFOR.L and after a little over two years, S4 Capital plc has over 4000 people in 31 countries, with a market capitalization of $4 billion.

Sir Martin supports a number of leading business schools and universities, including his alma maters, Harvard Business School and Cambridge University, and a number of charities, including his family foundation.

About Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Month

This month Startup Grind is celebrating DEI month, presented with SVB and supported by Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; 31 days to emphasize the importance of diversity across our global startup ecosystem, and what it means to all of us. We are so excited to take this time to recognize and amplify the voices of leaders in our globally diverse communities, providing a platform for those that may not have been heard previously.

In addition to this event, you can also view Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Month events taking place across our global startup community here or register for our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Summit here.