Mark Read is taking his hands of the WPP Media wheel and saying goodbye to the holding company as incoming CEO Cindy Rose prepares to take command on 1 September 2025.
Speaking that WPP Media’s H1 2025 earnings call, the outgoing WPP Media CEO reflected on his leadership and doing things that had worked for the company sooner.
“I do think that the brand structure that we have has been effective and they remain important, but they need to be more ‘brands’ less ‘companies’ in order to manage talent, not to manage the organisation,” he said, as reported by Campaign UK.
Read added: “I’m not going to set the strategy for Cindy or ever comment on it in any way either [but] I think those are all directions I’m sure that she will look at as she takes on the company.
“I believe we are very well prepared, and certainly as well, if not better prepared, as anyone in our industry.”
Read ended the call by thanking the leadership team and wishing Rose the best.
“It’s a continuing, challenging environment out there, and I think we’re under no illusions about that, but I think we have made some difficult decisions, but I am positive about the future.”
Rose was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of WPP Media in July. As a joint British and American citizen, she will work out of both London and New York.
She has spent the lat nine years working in London in senior positions at Microsoft. In her current role as Chief Operating Officer, Global Enterprise, she works with the world’s largest companies in their use of digital technology and AI to drive business transformation. Previous roles at Microsoft included serving as President of Microsoft Western Europe and CEO of Microsoft UK.
Read’s message comes after WPP Media recently claimed it made “significant progress on the repositioning” of its organisation model, despite reporting 7.8% drop in revenue to £6,663m in H1 of 2025, from £7,227m in the same period last year.
The H1 headline operating profit tumbled 29% to £412m, from £646m in 2024 which the company says is reflective of the decline in revenue less pass-through costs and higher severance costs, in particular at WPP Media.
Top image: Mark Read