Shane Smith, the bearded founder of Vice Media, was the star turn at WPP’s annual meeting in Northumberland Avenue yesterday.
Sir Martin Sorrell’s ad agency has a stake in the fast-growing, youth-focused media company.
“This is the part I’m dreading. We don’t normally let you near AGMs,” he said as he introduced the jeans-wearing Smith to the senescent and blazer-clad audience.
“Smash the state!” quipped Smith, raising his right fist.
But unlike some fund managers, he wasn’t mounting the barricades over Sorrell’s contentious £43 million payday for 2014.
“This wouldn’t even be an issue in America,” he told Spy later. “He’s creating billions in shareholder value. I take all my remuneration in shares — that’s what he’s doing too.”
Perhaps Smith’s relaxed attitude is not that surprising.
He dropped heavy hints at the meeting that Vice may float soon — which would trigger a payday for Smith to put Sorrell’s package in the shade.
Business news in pictures - June 10
Bankers of the future will be party-poopers
A sad day for the City’s banks yesterday.
Not the news of thousands of jobs being axed by HSBC but the fact that any prospective employers may not be able to snare the quality of party-loving, sleepless junior banker they once enjoyed.
A survey by student housing developer Unite found that more than half of UK undergraduates questioned say noise is the biggest challenge of living with other students, and a shocking 87% want peace and quiet at their student digs.
More worryingly, a mere 56% are looking for good nightlife.
What would the Young Ones have said (or chucked)?
Kelly’s method at auction is just the game of the name
Budding auctioneers attempting to work their way up to hawking at Sotheby’s: a top tip from Sean Kelly.
The fast-talking auctioneer and host of TV’s Storage Hunters (in which buyers blind bid for reclaimed storage containers that can hold anything from Nazi memorabilia to dead bodies) reveals that, rather than imagining his audience naked, he gives them names.
Kelly tells Spy: “I have been doing stand-up for 16 years. To make the crowd laugh, I always give people nicknames.”
On the show, the UK version of which returned to screens this month, he can be heard swiftly dubbing spec-wearing bidders “Sarah Palin” or a film star who vaguely resembles them.
Spy isn’t sure how it would go down with the snooty fine art crowd.
Kelly, an avid Standard reader and east London resident, also bemoans the Tube’s less-than-talkative atmosphere.
“Fans should come up to me when I’m on the Underground, I like being pestered,” he laughs.
Brace yourself, Sean.
