WPP CEO Mark Read to step down after 7 years

WPP's CEO Mark Read will step down from his role and retire from the Board on 31 December 2025. After more than 30 years with the company, including seven as CEO, Read has decided that the time is right for him to hand over to a new leader and the search for a successor is underway.

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Read's move comes after a series of restructuring taken place within WPP's subsidiary agencies. Most recently, WPP retired the GroupM name and launched WPP Media, a fully integrated, AI-powered media company designed for the next wave of marketing. The move is part of a broader effort to deliver more integrated, AI-enabled solutions to the world’s largest advertisers. 

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On the creative front, WPP also moved its creative agency Grey under Ogilvy, shifting its current reporting structure from AKQA group. The move aimed to strengthen collaboration and unlock growth opportunities across the WPP network, according to internal memos obtained by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

Read stepped up as WPP CEO in 2018, taking over from Sir Martin Sorrell, and has overseen the company as it has tried to steer his business to cope with the dominance of the advertising market by tech giants Meta and Alphabet.

During his guidance, the company launched Open Intelligence recently, a next-gen data solution and the industry’s first large marketing model - built to drive real business outcomes and fuel faster, smarter marketing performance for the AI era. At the heart of Open Intelligence is a fundamentally different approach to using AI to drive business growth, trained on the world’s largest and most diverse set of audience, behavioural, and event data across WPP’s decentralised partnership network.

Philip Jansen, chair of WPP, said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Read for his contributions not only as CEO but throughout his more than 30 years of leadership and service to the company. During that time Read has played a central role in transforming the company into a world leader in modern marketing services, with deep AI, data and technology capabilities, global presence and unrivalled creative talent, setting WPP up well for longer-term success."

“We are pleased that Read will continue to lead WPP as CEO until the end of the year, remaining focused on the execution of the company’s growth strategy and supporting a smooth transition to his successor, once appointed.”

Read said: “WPP is an incredible company with over 100,000 talented and creative people, wonderful clients and partners, and an unmatched presence around the world. It has been an immense privilege to serve as its CEO for the past seven years."

“When I took on this role our mission was to build a simpler, stronger business, and put structure and new energy behind our creativity and performance, powered by world-leading technology. I am proud that our teams across the business have delivered that exceptionally well. Our clients today rate us more highly than ever before, we now work with four of the world’s five most valuable companies, and our revenues with our biggest clients have grown consistently," he added.

He added that the company also positioned WPP at the forefront of the industry with its investments in AI and, with the full launch of WPP Open this year, WPP is now leading the way as AI transforms marketing. "We have an exceptional leadership team and a secure financial position that allows us to face the future confidently and capture the opportunities ahead."

“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. 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. I would also like to thank Jansen and the rest of the Board for their steadfast support for me and the wider executive team, and I look forward to supporting them in the transition to my successor in the coming months," he added.

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