Mark Read to stand down as WPP CEO

WPP Plc chief executive Mark Read will stand down at one of the world’s largest advertising agency groups by the end of the year as the advance of artificial intelligence takes a toll on industry growth.

Shares of UK’s biggest advertising group, which last year lost its place as the world’s largest ad agency by revenues to French rival Publicis, are near a five-year low.

Its two biggest US rivals—Omnicom and IPG—have announced plans to merge.

Read, who has been at WPP for almost 30 years, including seven as CEO, “has decided that the time is right for him to hand over to a new leader and the search for a successor is underway,” the company said in a statement.

“Mark 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,” Philip Jansen, chair of WPP, said, in a statement to the exchanges.

A former boss at BT, Jansen became chair of the group in the beginning of the year, fueling speculation about Read’s future at the helm since succeeding Sir Martin Sorrell in 2018.

WPP is Britain’s biggest advertising group, with revenues of about £15bn and more than 100,000 employees around the world.

Last November, the communications firm had opened its third campus in India at Chennai, after Mumbai and Gurugram.

The campus would initially host WPP’s enterprise technology team in India, with more teams joining at a later date, the company said.

“WPP is committed to investing in India through our new campuses, creating spaces that foster collaboration, inspire creativity and enable career development,” Read had said then.

With more than 11,000 employees, India is a “twin growth engine for WPP, being home both to some of the company’s best performing agency teams and many of its global support functions,” the company said.