Roberto Quarta

Roberto Quarta
Born (1949-05-10) May 10, 1949 (age 75)
Italy
EducationCollege of the Holy Cross (BA)
OccupationBusinessman
TitleChairman of Smith & Nephew and WPP plc
TermFebruary 2015 until July 2024
SuccessorPhilip Jansen
Board member ofSmith & Nephew
WPP plc
Rexel SA
Italtel
Children2

Roberto Quarta (born May 10, 1949) is an Italian-born American businessman. He is the chairman of Smith & Nephew, and the chairman of WPP plc since June 2015.

Early life and education

Roberto Quarta was born on May 10, 1949, in Italy.[1][2] He emigrated to the United States at the age of 15, and he spent the rest of his adolescence in Brooklyn, New York City,[2] where his father was a tailor.[3] Quarta graduated from the College of the Holy Cross.[1][4]

Career

His initial industrial management career was with BTR plc, where he rose to be a board director.

In 1993 he moved to become chief executive of BBA Group, where he executed strong performance improvement and portfolio change, producing a major increase in shareholder value.[5] He later became chair of BBA (which was renamed BBA Aviation following the demerger of Fiberweb in November 2006), stepping down in 2007.

Quarta is a partner of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private equity group. He is on the board of two CD&R businesses, Rexel SA and Italtel. He was chairman of IMI plc (2011-2015).[6] He has been on the boards of PowerGen plc, BAE Systems plc, and Equant NV. He has been the chairman of Smith & Nephew since 2014.[7]

In June 2015, he was appointed chairman of WPP plc, succeeding Philip Lader.[8][9][10]

Following the resignation of Martin Sorrell, CEO and founder of WPP, he became executive chairman in April 2018.[11]

Personal life

Quarta is separated from his first wife, with whom he has a son and a daughter.[1] He remarried

References

  1. ^ a b c "UK: THE DAVIDSON INTERVIEW - ROBERTO QUARTA". Management Today. 1 October 1996. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  2. ^ a b Mance, Henry (19 December 2014). "Cost-cutting Roberto Quarta at the gates of Fort Sorrell". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  3. ^ Clark, Andrew. "Business big shot: Roberto Quarta". The Times. Retrieved 2017-07-25.
  4. ^ "Company Overview of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc.: Roberto Quarta". Bloomberg. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  5. ^ "UK: THE DAVIDSON INTERVIEW - ROBERTO QUARTA". Managementtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-07-25.
  6. ^ "IMI plc annual report 2015" (PDF). IMI Corporate site. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  7. ^ "Chairman - Roberto Quarta". Smith & Nephew. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  8. ^ "Our leadership - WPP". www.wpp.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  9. ^ Hellier, David (17 December 2014). "WPP ends its chairman search by hiring Roberto Quarta from IMI". cityam.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  10. ^ "WPP lines up Roberto Quarta as chairman". campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  11. ^ Erik Oster, Patrick Coffee (15 April 2018). "WPP CEO Martin Sorrell Steps Down Abruptly After 33 Years". www.adweek.com/. Retrieved 15 April 2018.


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