Robert lerwill biography

Robert Lerwill, the new chief executive of Aegis, said this week that the group's future success is not dependent on a sale to one of the large advertising holding companies.

Lerwill told Campaign: "I'm here to run the business and deliver more of the same success.

I'm not here to speculate on what might happen in the future but I don't see the need for any more consolidation on the media buying side."

Lerwill replaces Doug Flynn, who is joining Rentokil Initial as its chief executive after turning down an offer to run the Australian newspaper group Fairfax.

Flynn, a former managing director of News Internat-ional, joined Aegis in 1999.

He will take up his position at Rentokil in April.

Lerwill, 53, was formerly the group finance director at WPP, where he worked between 1986 and 1996.

He subsequently joined Cable & Wireless as the telecoms giant's group finance director.

Lerwill then went on to run C&W's regional divis