British agency holding group WPP has appointed Cindy Rose, currently chief operating officer for Global Enterprise at Microsoft, as its new CEO. Rose has sat on WPP’s board as a non-executive director since 2019, and has also worked with the agency as a client and partner in previous roles. She will take the reins from September 1st, meaning current CEO Mark Read will leave the role sooner than initially expected, though he will remain at WPP until the end of the year to support the transition.
Rose is something of a surprise appointment — her name didn’t pop up in any of the articles predicting who might be next in line for the top job (or at least, not any of those seen by VideoWeek). She’s had a long career in the media and entertainment business, holding roles at Vodafone, Virgin Media, and Disney prior to Microsoft, but has never worked in an ad agency role full-time.
However, as outgoing CEO Read said in a statement, Rose’s time on WPP’s board has given her “real insight into [WPP’s] business and [she] knows many of [WPP’s] clients, people and partners around the world”.
“There are so many opportunities ahead for WPP,” said Rose. “We have and continue to build market-leading AI capabilities, alongside an unrivalled reputation for creative excellence and a preeminent client list. WPP has the most brilliant, talented, creative people and I can’t wait to write the company’s next chapter together.”
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From WPP’s point of view, Rose’s experience leading digital transformation and deploying AI-based solutions within large businesses looks to be a big part of the draw. Continuing the deployment of AI tools across the company, primarily through the WPP Open platform, will form a major part of her mandate.
“Cindy has supported the digital transformation of large enterprises around the world – including embracing AI to create new customer experiences, business models and revenue streams,” said Philip Jansen, chair of WPP. “Her expertise in this landscape will be hugely valuable to WPP as the industry navigates fundamental changes and macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Rose, who holds both American and British citizenship, will split her time between the two markets, perhaps signalling an intention to strengthen WPP’s position in the US market. Arthur Sadoun, CEO of WPP’s French rival Publicis, has won praise from some in the industry for his tireless schedule which has seen him spend a reported two-thirds of his time in America.
More pressingly, Rose will be tasked with steadying a ship which has hit extremely choppy waters. Just yesterday, WPP released an unexpected trading update warning that performance in Q2 has been worse than it had previously forecast. The company has downgraded its full year guidance for like-for-like revenues less passthrough costs to between -3 percent and -5 percent (from previous expectations of between 0 percent and -2 percent).
The company blamed a mix of poor macroeconomic conditions and client losses for the downgrade. The former argument may not hold too much water with shareholders, given how Publicis and Omnicom have fared significantly better faced with the same conditions.
Rose won’t be able to fix these issues quickly. Client losses can’t be immediately remedied, and while WPP is confident its AI investments will enable it to outperform its competitors, it will take time for adoption of AI capabilities to grow, and to translate into revenue gains.
But perceptions are important for publicly traded companies, and bringing in fresh leadership might help create a sense that the company is moving in the right direction (even if it’s the direction that Read set it on in the first place).
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