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WPP CEO Mark Read has stepped down from the UK’s largest advertising group after suffering from nearly five years of stock prices and the industry-wide upheaval caused by artificial intelligence.
READ exits have ended their 30+ years career with WPP and are looking for a new CEO in one of the most intense periods in the industry. He will continue as CEO until the end of the year while the board begins searching for successors.
Former BT boss Philip Jansen became the group’s chairman earlier this year, sparking speculation about the future of the read. In an internal note to staff seen by the Financial Times, Read said, “There’s never been a best time to move on as CEO, but this feels like the right time for me.”
In a statement Monday, Janssen said it “had a central role in transforming the company into a global leader in modern marketing services.”
Read has tried to restructure and streamline the group’s global operations and invest more in technology since taking over from Ir Martin Sorrell in 2018, but WPP’s share price has been halved during its tenure, bringing its market capitalization to around £6 billion.
WPP shares fell 1.3% in early trading on Monday. Those familiar with the move said he had no work lined up, but he decided to leave now. He is expected to seek other roles in the technology, marketing or the consumer industry.
WPP lost its position as the world’s largest advertising agency last year due to revenues to French rival Publicis, but two US rivals, Omnicom and IPG, announced plans to merge to create a single North American advertising heavyweight. WPP remains the UK’s largest advertising group, with revenues of nearly £15 billion and more than 100,000 employees worldwide.
Reid, 58, took over from Sorrel, who resigned after an investigation into his workplace behavior. Read oversees the company as it attempted to reorient its business to deal with the dominance of the advertising market by Tech Giants Meta and Alphabet.
Social media and influencer content have become important marketing channels, but traditional advertising media such as television has reduced its importance.
Recently, Read has pushed WPP to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in AI. This threatens to shake up the advertising agency model by providing a much faster and cheaper way to do labor-intensive creative and media planning work. Today, over 50,000 people use WPP Open, an AI platform to help them work.
Read told FT in January that WPP would need to move on from a difficult restructuring and rebuild the company’s network with AI at the centre.
Last year, WPP sold control of public relations group FGS to private equity group KKR for $767 million in cash.
In an internal memo to staff, Read said he read, “We need to make many of the difficult decisions needed to serve our clients better, simplify our company, build our culture and place WPP on a stronger financial footing.”
He added: “We have experienced some of the most challenging external events of our time, from the pandemic to the war in Ukraine, navigating an increasingly polarised and difficult world.
Media analyst Claire Enders said the reading was initially a “stable pair of hands holding the ship together through hundreds of acquisitions and integrations,” and then oversaw “complete simplification” as the business chief executive.
“WPP struggles with stronger headwinds than its peers, primarily due to British history and listings,” she said.
