WPP has been flirting with the thought of turning into an “AI-driven platform enterprise” for a while – principally in earnings calls and on technique decks. Now, with a brand new CEO incoming, the holdco would possibly lastly be prepared to show the tagline right into a throughline.
That job now falls to Cindy Rose, a longtime Microsoft government and present chief of working officer of its international enterprise enterprise. She’ll take over from Mark Learn on September 1st (although Learn will stick round till the yr’s finish).
When she does, she received’t be strolling in blind. Rose has been a non-executive director on WPP’s board since 2019, so she is aware of the dimensions of the ambition, and the sprawl she’s inheriting.
“Cindy has supported the digital transformation of huge enterprises all over the world – together with embracing AI to create new buyer experiences, enterprise fashions and income streams,” Philip Jansen, chair of WPP.
Translation: she’s constructed for the sort of transformation WPP retains promising.
It’s the identical line of considering Kirk McDonald, former CEO of GroupM North America, floated again in 2022: the concept that the fashionable company would look extra like an enterprise platform than a service store. Whether or not CMOs ever totally purchase into that’s nonetheless a stretch, however the truth that is even a dialog speaks volumes about the place the holdco enterprise is headed. And it’s why WPP’s board is betting on somebody who’s performed that enterprise recreation earlier than.
“Her experience on this panorama will probably be massively invaluable to WPP because the business navigates elementary adjustments and macroeconomic uncertainty,” stated Jansen. “Cindy’s appointment follows a radical choice course of that thought of each inner and exterior candidates.”
So, who’s Cindy Rose?
A British-American legislation graduate with a monitor report working the operations of main firms, Rose is an outsider to the promoting world — however an insider at WPP, the place she’s been a non-executive director for six years.
“This isn’t a state of affairs the place somebody exterior goes to come back in and discover a great deal of skeletons. She is aware of what she’s moving into,” stated Ruben Schreurs, CEO of Ebiquity.
Following managing director roles at Vodafone and Disney, Rose labored for tech big Microsoft for 9 years, serving as its U.Okay. CEO between 2016 and 2020.
“I believe she brings a very attention-grabbing background – leisure, tech, information – which ticks all of the containers,” stated Ryan Kangisser, managing companion at media consultancy Mediasense.
Income at Microsoft’s British arm surged throughout her tenure, rising from £2.14 billion ($2.9 billion) in 2018 to £2.85 billion ($3.87 billon) in 2019 and £4.03bILLION ($5.47 billion) in 2020, in accordance with tax information printed by the U.Okay.’s Corporations Home. That function noticed her dubbed “essentially the most highly effective lady within the British tech sector” by the enterprise press, earlier than she was promoted first to Western European president and later the COO function at its international enterprise enterprise, in 2023.
“It’s robust to go away such a unprecedented group, particularly now within the center innings of the AI transition,” she wrote in a Linkedin put up addressed to her Microsoft colleagues. “However some alternatives are so particular and distinctive that you just simply must go for it.”
‘An attention-grabbing injection of recent considering’
This isn’t simply concerning the names on her CV. Rose’s previous as an operations chief marks her out from the ranks of holdco leaders which have graduated from company CEO positions.
Regardless of years of company consolidation and inner mergers, WPP stays in operational upheaval. Its overhaul of GroupM (now WPP Media) and AI market stall had been themselves solely unveiled some six weeks in the past.
From that perspective, bringing on an operations-minded chief to complete the job makes extra sense than hiring one other would-be visionary. “I believe it’ll be an attention-grabbing injection of recent considering on this business,” stated Kangisser.
Schreurs steered that operations would stay a part of Rose’s focus as soon as she formally takes the reins within the autumn. “The company networks are searching for methods to streamline, and that occurs by means of consolidation and thru automation. My guess is that that will probably be a key a part of her focus,” he stated.
However Rose’s announcement comes following a bruising interval for WPP. Simply yesterday, the corporate launched a dire buying and selling replace slicing its anticipated 2025 natural income from -3% to -5%; Learn cited “intensifying” macroeconomic headwinds and lack of recent enterprise pitches. And final month, Barclays downgraded its score to “underweight”, illustrating traders’ ebbing confidence within the group’s prospect.
A lot of this ache has been felt at WPP’s media arm, the once-reliable engine that’s now sputtering. It’s been within the firing line, dropping marquee accounts like Mars and Coca-Cola over the past 18 months. It’s been a reminder that even essentially the most profitable components of the enterprise aren’t immune when the market shifts.
“It appears like a very stable match, however she’s clearly obtained her work reduce out,” concluded Kangisser.
