WPP CEO Mark Read is to leave the advertising giant at the end of the year.
Read has spent more than 30 years working at WPP and almost seven years as CEO.
In a statement announcing his departure, WPP said that 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.”
His departure comes as the advertising industry grapples with the disruption caused by the rise of artificial intelligence.
Earlier this month, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said it would start helping advertisers fully create and target campaigns using AI tools, including images, video and text.
WPP has pledged to spend £300m this year on WPP Open, its AI-driven operating system that it has been building for the past four years.
WPP has operations in marketing, public relations and media investment and employs more than 100,000 people, 12,000 of them in the UK.
Philip Jansen, Chair of WPP, said: “Mark 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.”
Read said: “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.”
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