Many may think it is invidious for me to comment on my own compensation, but I wanted to add to the debate on CEO compensation.

Twenty seven years ago we started WPP, or Wire?&?Plastic Products as it was then known, from one room in London with two people and a market capitalisation of just ￡1m. Today we have more than 160,000 people in 108 countries and a market capitalisation of about ￡10bn.

In 1985 I borrowed ￡250,000 to buy almost 15 per cent of WPP. Today, anybody who invested ￡1,000 in WPP at the beginning in 1985 would have more than ￡46,000, including dividends, or ￡31,000, excluding dividends. WPP ranks as the ninth most successful FTSE company based in the UK including receipt of dividends and seventh excluding them. Over the past five calendar years, WPP has materially outperformed the FTSE 100. Last year we reported record revenues of ￡10bn and record profits of ￡1bn, which has never been done before in our industry, and won the first Lion Award for Most Creative Holding Company at the Cannes advertising festival.