Cindy Rose has officially begun her tenure as CEO of WPP with an agenda built on harnessing AI’s potential, putting people first and winning new clients, according to comments from her first global town hall.
The former Microsoft exec succeeds Mark Read at the beleaguered advertising giant, which has made a raft of leadership changes. In his final public remarks as CEO, Read acknowledged the “challenging environment” awaiting his successor and noted he would not “set out a strategy” for her.
Now, in her first global town hall from WPP’s 3WTC campus in New York, Rose set her agenda to staff. “This is a people business at its core,” she said, with a goal to make WPP “the home for the world’s most exceptional talent.” She added: “Priority number one will be to create an environment to help you grow as professionals.”
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But the centre of gravity of the task facing WPP, which has seen it’s share price halved this year, is unmistakable. AI, the incoming boss thinks, could be the thing to change the company’s fortunes.
“AI is going to shape the future of WPP and our client relationships,” she told staff, urging “every laptop and phone [to] have WPP Open installed.” She wants teams to become “AI superusers” and to start managing AI agents like teammates — part of a wider push to make WPP’s Open platform a daily, default tool across the group.
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On clients, Rose’s message was equally blunt. “WPP should be famous for being completely client-obsessed,” she said. It means “working together much more closely as one team to go the extra mile…to make them successful,” she added. The growth playbook, as she framed it, is culture + talent + a “relentless” focus on client outcomes. “If we execute well on these three core principles,” she said. “We’ll offer our clients an unrivalled combination … powered by the best AI capabilities in the market. This is how we win!”
WPP, which is based in London but operates a large Northern campus for its constituent agencies on the former Granada Studios site in Manchester, is coming off a torrid spell. A strategic review, a halved interim dividend and like-for-like revenue down 5.8% in Q2, alongside major media losses – including Mars, Coca-Cola North America, PayPal – to rivals. Rose’s mandate lands squarely in that context.
