Lord Saatchi, co-founder of advertising agency M&C Saatchi Plc (LON:SAA) has lead a boardroom exodus from the company following an accounting scandal last week.
Saatchi, an executive director at the AIM-listed firm, quit the company on Tuesday evening and was joined by three non-executive directors, Lord Dobbs, Michael Peat and Lorna Tilbian, all of which have stepped down with immediate effect.
Dobbs is perhaps best known as the author of the House of Cards novels, while Peat is a former private secretary to Prince Charles and Tilbian a media analyst.
The exits followed a trading update last week where the company revealed an £11.6mln black hole in its accounts while also saying its full-year profits will be “significantly below” prior expectations, sending the stock tumbling 46%.
Jeremy Sinclair, the group’s chairman, said that the firm was “determined to restore the operational performance and profitability of the business” following the revelations and was currently implementing the recommendations of an independent review into its finances carried out by PwC.
He added that the group had also begun a process to “reconstruct” the board with new directors following the exodus, however, the mass departure sent the shares sliding 4% to 98.9p in early trading on Wednesday.