WPP has named senior Microsoft executive and board member Cindy Rose as its next chief executive, a day after a major profit warning sent shares in the advertising giant tumbling to a 16-year low.
Rose, who will take up the post on September 1, replaces outgoing CEO Mark Read four months earlier than initially planned. The announcement comes after WPP slashed its forecast for revenues and profits for the year, blaming poor trading in the first half and a slowdown in new business.
Shares in the group — which operates a large Northern campus at the former Granada Studios site in Manchester — were down more than 15 per cent on Wednesday after the update, hitting a low of 439p. They rose by 2 per cent in early trading on Thursday following the announcement of Rose’s appointment.
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Rose has served on WPP’s board since 2019 and brings nearly a decade of senior leadership experience at Microsoft, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, Global Enterprise. Prior to that, she headed Microsoft’s UK business and held roles at Vodafone and Virgin Media.
WPP chairman Philip Jansen said: “Her expertise in this landscape will be hugely valuable to WPP as the industry navigates fundamental changes and macroeconomic uncertainty.”
WPP, which ceded its position as the world’s biggest ad group to France’s Publicis last year, is grappling with a downturn in client spend and the disruptive impact of AI tools, which are enabling clients to manage more marketing in-house.
Rose said: “We have and continue to build market-leading AI capabilities, alongside an unrivalled reputation for creative excellence and a preeminent client list.”
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The numbers underline the task she faces. WPP expects like-for-like revenue to fall by 3 to 5 per cent in 2025, down from a previously forecasted flat performance. It also warned headline operating profit margins would drop by 50 to 175 basis points for the full year.
Read, who announced his departure in June after nearly 30 years with the business, said this week: “Since the start of the year, we have faced a challenging trading environment with macro pressures intensifying and lower net new business.”
He added that June’s performance was worse than anticipated and that this pattern was expected to continue into the second half.
WPP’s share price has more than halved during Read’s time in charge, reducing its market value to around £5bn.
