New York Magazine - The Saatchi Mutiny

When it was time to jump ship, CD Mike Burns left Saatchi and took 17 of his shipmates with him. This industry story made headlines outside the industry and now you can read the inside story.

Burns was furious that he wasn't brought into the loop until the night before the September 14 meeting. "I sat there at that point and I said to myself, "This isn’t where I want to be,' " he says. "I was there for 25 years. I ran 50 percent of the agency. So here's news that the creative director who'd worked with all of my clients was being let go and nobody told me about it? You're not going to tell me who the new people are because you're worried about press leaks? I wasn't able to inform my clients. I wasn't able to inform the folks that I work with. It was a carnival act of epic proportions."

After the meeting, Burns sent an e-mail to Roberts outlining his dissatisfaction. Roberts said he might be able to get Burns a salary bump. Burns said he was concerned not about his own salary but about how his team was being treated. He never got a response.