British advertising giant is hunting for a new CEO after the company announced early Monday morning that its current leader, company veteran Mark Read, would cede the reins by the end of 2025.
“After seven years in the role, and with the foundations in place for WPP’s continued success, I feel it is the right time to hand over the leadership of this amazing company,” Read said. “I am excited to explore the next chapter in my life and can only thank all the brilliant people I have been lucky enough to work with over the last 30 years, and who have made possible the enormous progress we have achieved together.”
Yet WPP, which operates dozens of agencies ranging from Hill & Knowlton to Landor & Fitch, has grown weaker under Read’s watch. Shares are down by a third over the course of 2025 to date, and have fallen by half over the course of Read’s seven-year tenure. Read has spent 30 years at the company, many of them as a lieutenant to the company’s founder, Martin Sorrell. Sorrell exited the company in 2018 amid a probe of allegations of misconduct, and Read, who spent much of this time building new digital operations, became the company’s new leader.
During his time in the top role, Read has tried to steer WPP through a difficult climate. Big advertisers like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Ford Motor have begun focusing on the money they spend with companies like WPP, trying to winnow down not only the number of firms they work with but the fees they pay them. They are also able to purchase media time and collect consumer information more easily on their own. WPP and Interpublic Group, another of the sector’s big holding companies, have tried to focus on new technology that mines and analyzes consumer data, but have also had to merge some of their biggest and most recognizable assets.
All of this has led advertisers to move away from Madison Avenue’s main stock in trade, the 30-second TV commercial, and focus instead on techniques that may not generate as much revenue and work.
Under Read, WPP merged agency giants like J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam with data and tech specialist firms in a big to make them more relevant to modern advertisers. In doing so, however, the company undermined the agency brands and recognizability.
WPP recently overhauled its media-buying agency GroupM, laying off many employees and downplaying individual operations such as Mindshare and Wavemaker while highlighting new abilities to use artificial intelligence to devise media plans and placement. But the move wasn’t done out of strength. GroupM had lost many pivotal accounts in recent years.
Rivals have also tested new ways to compete. Interpublic Group is set to merge with its larger U.S. contemporary, Omnicom Group, sometime this year. Publicis Groupe of France has grown larger by assimilating businesses that work to harness influencers.
Read’s agreement to stay through the end of the year means the company will focus on “supporting a smooth transition to his successor,” said Philip Jansen, chairman of WPP’s board of directors, in a statement. But keeping WPP moving amid a rapidly changing sector will be anything but effortless.
variety.com
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