Who is Cindy Rose, WPP’s insider-outsider pick for its next CEO?

When she does, she won’t be walking in blind. Rose has been a non-executive director on WPP’s board since 2019, so she knows the scale of the ambition, and the sprawl she’s inheriting. 

“Cindy has supported the digital transformation of large enterprises around the world – including embracing AI to create new customer experiences, business models and revenue streams,” Philip Jansen, chair of WPP. 

Translation: she’s built for the kind of transformation WPP keeps promising.

It’s the same line of thinking Kirk McDonald, former CEO of GroupM North America, floated back in 2022: the idea that the modern agency would look more like an enterprise platform than a service shop. Whether CMOs ever fully buy into that is still a stretch, but the fact that is even a conversation speaks volumes about where the holdco business is headed. And it’s why WPP’s board is betting on someone who’s played that enterprise game before. 

“Her expertise in this landscape will be hugely valuable to WPP as the industry navigates fundamental changes and macroeconomic uncertainty,” said Jansen. “Cindy’s appointment follows a thorough selection process that considered both internal and external candidates.”

So, who is Cindy Rose?

A British-American law graduate with a track record running the operations of major corporations, Rose is an outsider to the advertising world — but an insider at WPP, where she’s been a non-executive director for six years.

“This isn’t a situation where someone external is going to come in and find loads of skeletons. She knows what she’s getting into,” said Ruben Schreurs, CEO of Ebiquity.

Following managing director roles at Vodafone and Disney, Rose worked for tech giant Microsoft for nine years, serving as its U.K. CEO between 2016 and 2020.

“I think she brings a really interesting background – entertainment, tech, data – which ticks all the boxes,” said Ryan Kangisser, managing partner at media consultancy Mediasense. 

Revenue at Microsoft’s British arm surged during 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, according to tax records published by the U.K.’s Companies House. That role saw her dubbed “the most powerful woman in the British tech sector” by the business press, before she was promoted first to Western European president and later the COO role at its global enterprise business, in 2023.

“It’s tough to leave such an extraordinary organization, especially now in the middle innings of the AI transition,” she wrote in a Linkedin post addressed to her Microsoft colleagues. “But some opportunities are so special and unique that you just have to go for it.”

‘An interesting injection of new thinking’

This isn’t just about the names on her CV. Rose’s past as an operations chief marks her out from the ranks of holdco leaders that have graduated from agency CEO positions. 

Despite years of agency consolidation and internal mergers, WPP remains in operational upheaval. Its overhaul of GroupM (now WPP Media) and AI market stall were themselves only unveiled some six weeks ago. 

From that perspective, bringing on an operations-minded chief to finish the job makes more sense than hiring another would-be visionary.  “I think it’ll be an interesting injection of new thinking in this industry,” said Kangisser.

Schreurs suggested that operations would remain part of Rose’s focus once she formally takes the reins in the autumn. “The agency networks are looking for ways to streamline, and that happens through consolidation and through automation. My guess is that that will be a key part of her focus,” he said.

But Rose’s announcement comes following a bruising period for WPP. Just yesterday, the company released a dire trading update cutting its expected 2025 organic revenue from -3% to -5%; Read cited “intensifying” macroeconomic headwinds and lack of new business pitches. And last month, Barclays downgraded its rating to “underweight”, illustrating investors’ ebbing confidence in the group’s prospect.

Much of this pain has been felt at WPP’s media arm, the once-reliable engine that’s now sputtering. It’s been in the firing line, losing marquee accounts like Mars and Coca-Cola over the last 18 months. It’s been a reminder that even the most lucrative parts of the business aren’t immune when the market shifts.

“It feels like a really  solid fit, but she’s obviously got her work cut out,” concluded Kangisser.