WPP’s boss has quit as the UK’s biggest advertising agency struggles to keep up with the rise of AI.
Mark Read has led the FTSE 100 company for seven years.
But during this period, WPP’s share price has halved. The industry veteran has also seen the firm at which he spent 30 years lose its crown as the biggest advertising group in the world to French rival Publicis.
Read, 58, will stay in the job until the end of the year because the company has not yet hired a successor, leaving analysts speculating about ‘chaos’ behind the scenes.
WPP’s share price has fallen more than 50 per cent to 543.4p since Read took over from Sir Martin Sorrell in September 2018, wiping about £6billion off its market capitalisation.
And shares have tumbled around 70 per cent from an all-time-high of 1897p in February 2017 and are down 54 per cent from their most recent peak of 1214p in February 2022.
Seven-year itch: WPP boss Mark Read (pictured) will leave at the end of 2025 after leading the FTSE 100 company for seven years
WPP has increased investment in artificial intelligence in recent years, but it has struggled to keep up with the technology that can create cheaper and faster marketing campaigns.
The dominance of tech giants Facebook and Google in the advertising industry has also rocked the traditional agency model.
Read said: ‘We have positioned WPP at the forefront of the industry with our investments in AI and we are now leading the way as AI transforms marketing.’
He added: ‘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.’
Russ Mould, investment director at broker AJ Bell, said the sharp share price decline ‘meant Mark Read’s days were always numbered as chief executive’.
‘Shareholders can be patient, but there reaches a point where something has to change in order to revive the share price,’ he said.
‘WPP’s culture is rooted in traditional advertising and the world has gone digital, leaving the company scrabbling to play catch up.’
Mould added: ‘The fact the company hasn’t got a replacement lined up would suggest chaos behind closed doors.’
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