WPP has appointed Microsoft boss Cindy Rose as new CEO. The marketing services giant is aiming to implement a drastic restructuring to turn the sick London-listed company around.
Rose, chief operating officer of Microsoft's Global Enterprise and former head of business in Europe and the UK, will take over Mark Lead on September 1st.
Under Read's tenure, WPP's market value has fallen by two thirds, with its stock price struggling at its 16-year low. This is because businesses struggle with the rise of AI technologies that will help them automate the creation of advertising. They also struggle to stem the loss of a series of big clients to rivals, especially the French group Publicis.
Publicis, which overtakes WPP to become the world's largest marketing services group with revenue last year, has acquired billions of businesses, including media accounts for Coca-Cola in North America.
The latter victory revealed by the Guardian coincided with the move WPP to announce Red's departure in the company 30 years later.
WPP Chairman Philip Jansen said: “Cindy leads multi-billion dollar businesses across the UK, both EMEA and globally, creating lasting customer relationships and bringing growth in both the corporate and consumer environments.
“Cindy has supported the digital transformation of large companies around the world, including using AI to create new customer experiences, business models and revenue streams.”
In his recent role at Microsoft, Rose was responsible for working with large clients to use digital technology and AI for business transformation.
Rose, who has UK and US citizenship, has been on the WPP board since 2019.
She is based in London and New York, and WPP has previously considered moving listings. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Imperial College Business School and McClallen Racing in London.
Before Microsoft, Rose played senior roles at Vodafone and Virgin Media, working for 15 years at Walt Disney Company.
“Cindy is an outstanding inspirational business leader with extensive experience in some of the world's most well-known companies, and has a proven track record of growing large businesses,” Janssen said, adding that the recruitment process was “full” and that internal and external candidates were considered.
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The WPP moved quickly to ensure that they read the successor, who only announced his departure last month.
Reading, overhauled the group, consolidated the institutions and sold several businesses during his tenure.
However, the loss of clients promoted by slowing down the mark to build AI offerings meant a battle against developments by deep technology in the sector, which meant they were unable to reinvigorate the company's stock price.
“There are so many opportunities in the WPP to come,” Rose said. “We continue to build market-leading AI capabilities with a unique reputation for creative excellence and an outstanding client list. We have begun our career in the creative industry, and it feels like we're going home.”
On Wednesday, WPP cut its revenue and profit forecasts this year, denounced the challenging economic background. The warning caused the company's share price to fall by 19%.
