Olivier Fleurot is the CEO of MS&L Group, having been appointed to this position in May 2009.

He joined Publicis Groupe in 2006 as Executive Chairman of Publicis, one of the three global advertising networks in the Groupe. In this capacity he chaired the Publicis Worldwide  advertising executive committee and set the network’s global strategy, in addition to contributing to developing important global clients.

Prior to joining Publicis Groupe, Fleurot was with the Financial Times Group in London, from 2003 to 2006 in the position of Chief Executive. In 2006 he was named Senior Advisor to Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson, the Group’s parent company. He joined the organization in 1999 as managing director of the Financial Times. In that role he devised a strategy to increase the global circulation of the paper, particularly in the U.S. where readership tripled between 1998 and 2000. He was later appointed Chief Executive Officer of the FT Group and given responsibility for all of the Group’s newspapers and their online activities, including the Financial Times, Financial Times Deutschland in Germany and Les Echos in France, as well as stakes in newspapers in India, Russia and South Africa, and the business publications Investor’s Chronicle and the Banker.

Fleurot was responsible for orchestrating a drastic reduction in cost base after the high-tech bubble burst in 2000. He also oversaw the launch of Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) in partnership with Gruner & Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. Fleurot has been Chairman or Vice Chairman of the FTD board for six years.  He was appointed to the Pearson Management Committee in October 2002 and has played an executive role across all its businesses.

In 2003, he launched the Asia edition of the FT and FTChinese.com, a Web site in Mandarin targeted to the Chinese business community.

He has been alternatively Chairman or Vice Chairman of FTSE – a joint-venture between the FT and the London Stock Exchange – for five years. The business has transformed from a UK-focused activity into a global business, growing at an average annual rate of 25 percent.

In 2005 and 2006, he was a non-executive board member of Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), a provider of financial data listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Before joining the Financial Times Group, Fleurot was Chief Executive of the Les Echos Group, France’s leading business publisher. He joined Les Echos in 1988 as Marketing, Circulation and Communications Manager of the Business Division. Under his stewardship, Les Echos progressed considerably on all fronts.

After earning a Master of Science degree from Ecole Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne, Fleurot began his career as an engineer.  He first worked with Degrémont, a worldwide leader in water treatment engineering, in a post which led him to spend two years in the United States.  Between 1978 and 1984 he also worked as a journalist for various publications, including 18 months covering the high-tech industry for Les Echos.