Yannick Bolloré to become Havas global chief Yannick Bolloré's appointment will encourage speculation of a possible merger with Vivendi Yannick Bolloré, son of French billionaire industrialist Vincent, is to become global chief executive of the Paris-based Havas advertising group, signalling the family's growing role on France's corporate stage. The 33-year-old Mr Bolloré"s arrival at the top of one of the world's largest advertising groups comes just a few months after his father became vice-chairman of Vivendi, the French media, telecoms and entertainment group. Mr Bolloré senior, who turned his family's business manufacturing paper for cigarettes and bibles into a €10bn corporate empire with interests spreading to logistics and agriculture in Africa, is Vivendi's largest shareholder with a 5 per cent stake. Widely known for his financial success in a string of corporate raids, Mr Bolloré is also Havas's single largest shareholder. The appointment of his son as Havas's CEO, effective immediately, comes at a time of huge change in the advertising world, as Paris-based Publicis works towards completing its proposed merger with US-based former rival Omnicom. The merger, which is set to create the world's largest advertising group, has sparked speculation about the future for other companies in the industry, including Havas. Against that backdrop, Yannick's appointment will doubtless encourage speculation of a possible merger of the Paris-based advertising agency with Vivendi - even though in an interview with the FT last year Mr Bolloré senior dismissed any such plan. Vivendi, which started off life as a water utility founded by Napoleon III, is in the middle of a deep restructuring that, once concluded later this year, will result in the spinning off of its SFR telecommunications unit. The result will leave the group smaller but also more focused on providing media and content built around its Universal Music Group as well as Canal Plus, the French pay TV network. As part of that restructuring, Mr Bolloré senior will replace Jean-René Fourtou to become the group's chairman. Vivendi announced last month that Havas's Hervé Philippe would become its chief financial officer in the most recent reshuffle of the management team. Yannick Bolloré replaces David Jones, who had been at the advertising group for the past 15 years. Mr Jones told the Financial Times on Wednesday he would join a tech start-up but he would stay on as an adviser to the chairman and CEO of Havas for the rest of this year. Mr Jones, who is well connected in the tech community and serves on Facebook's advertising client council, said he had been bitten by the entrepreneur bug and the start-up would be at the intersection of social media and social responsibility, his "two big passions." He plans to unveil more details of the company when it launches next month, noting that a "substantial portion" of the company's profits will go back to charity. "In the future, if you want to do well, you need to do good," Mr Jones said.