In the course of a wide-ranging discussion, Edelman said:

He wants at least one of his daughters to succeed him, as long as they are the most qualified - otherwise it will be a non-family member.

After 40 years in PR, he's happy Edelman stayed private - as CEO he’s grown revenues almost tenfold, from $90m to nearly $900m.

His biggest change in 40 years is Edelman and Weber Shandwick taking over as the biggest firms from Burson-Marsteller, H+K, and Carl Byoir.

Martin Sorrell is an irrepressible character, a brilliant operator, who has proven it by building a $21 billion business – he will be back.

Cannes: Too many PR Lions are won by ad agencies, but PR is going to do better this year. No PR people want to walk out of the Palais muttering again – we have to win.

2018 will be an "OK year" for our industry – we have to play for a 5- to 10-year time horizon.

"The power of earned media is only enhanced by shared media – you can’t buy influence."

Evolution of PR, digital and creative is a massive cultural transformation for our industry.

"I don’t believe all the bits of a holding company come to the table with equal status – it’s still advertising- or media buying-led."

There’s no automatic dividend to growth in developing markets.

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