WPP Names Microsoft's Cindy Rose CEO to Lead Make-or-Break Turnaround

WPP (WPP, Financials) is reaching for fresh leadershipand maybe a lifeline; the British advertising giant has tapped Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) veteran Cindy Rose as its next CEO; the move comes just one day after the company stunned investors with a profit warning so severe that shares plunged 19%, wiping out years of gains in a single session.

Rose, who has been on WPP's board since 2019, isn't a stranger to transformation; she led Microsoft's UK business before becoming Chief Operating Officer of Global Enterprise; and now, she's being asked to do what feels almost impossiblesteady a sprawling advertising empire; rekindle growth; and wrestle with AI disruption all at once.

The stakes are enormous; WPP has lost almost half its market value this year; it ceded its crown as the world's largest ad group to Publicis; and clients are pulling back on spending; or simply taking their campaigns in-house, empowered by new tech. Chairman Philip Jansen called Rose's digital track record hugely valuable; investors clearly agreedshares edged up 2% in early trading; a modest rebound after Wednesday's brutal selloff.

Rose won't have much of a honeymoon; she takes over September 1, four months earlier than planned; she inherits a business that's bleeding major accounts and facing relentless macro headwinds; but she sounded undaunted; We have and continue to build market-leading AI capabilities, she said; and while that may be true, her challenge now is to convince Wall Streetand WPP's clientsthat the group can actually use them to grow again.