Publicis CEO 'will not need to' move London jobs to Paris post-Brexit
The chief executive of advertising giant Publicis Groupe has eased concerns that a Brexit would see creative jobs in the company moved from London to the network’s native France.
Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis
Maurice Levy made the statement just as HSBC announced it will be moving 1,000 jobs from Paris to London, just under a third of its UK workforce.
Levy told Bloomberg: “The Brexit will be a tough one, they have chosen the hardline. This will probably create a lot of issues and problems but at the same time everyone on Europe will want to continue to have good relationships with the UK.
“It will not have a huge impact on the economy and will probably be good for the European countries in the EU [because it will help attract talent from the UK].”
When asked if he will need to relocate staff from London to Paris, Levy said: “We will not need to do that because we are working on clients and accounts locally, there is no reason to move them.”
He did reflect however that financial institutions based in London will “need to move to Europe”.
Levy’s statements are somewhat at odds with Paul O’Donnell, Ogilvy’s worldwide executive director and EMEA chairman, who last year said that the Brexit would result in a “huge decline” in business, adding that “we would not invest further in our UK business in a non-EU environment”.
Earlier this week, prime minister Theresa May laid out her ground work for the Brexit, here's how senior figures in the ad industry reacted.