‘No sugarcoating’: WPP staff split on incoming CEO Cindy Rose’s first address
As Microsoft’s Cindy Rose prepares to join WPP next week as its new global chief executive officer, she has addressed staff for the first time, speaking to the challenging journey ahead.
In a video shared with employees, first obtained by Adweek, Rose acknowledged WPP’s difficult first half of 2025, while urging staff to feel excited about the company’s future. The London-listed group reported sharp revenue declines earlier this month.
“Now, I won’t sugarcoat this. We have a lot of hard work ahead, and of course it won’t be easy,” Rose said in the video.
Q2 total revenue was down 10.4% to AU$7.05 billion (£3.42 billion), and revenue less pass-through costs was down 12.6%. On a like-for-like basis, stripping out currency movements, acquisitions, and disposals, the declines were 4% and 5.8% respectively.
H1 revenue was therefore down 7.8% to AU$13.74 million (£6.63 million). To curb costs, WPP has shaved its headcount by 3.7%, or approximately 7,000 employees, since the start of the year. Staff costs in H1 were therefore down 7.5%, while bonuses were cut, dividends halved, and a strategic review announced — one that Rose will now lead.
WPP sits well below the pack
Announced in July, Rose will officially begin at WPP on September 1. She will succeed Mark Read, who in June, shared that he would hand over the reins, after a three-decade career with the holdco. He served as CEO for seven years, having replaced Sir Martin Sorrell after his abrupt resignation.
“But when I think about the assets that we have as a company, the brilliant people, we have the multi-award winning creative work that we produce, our beloved agency brands, our amazing clients, our global reach, our world leading technology capabilities. Wow. Like I cannot help but feel excited about our future,” Rose said.
Her message drew mixed reactions across WPP’s Australian network, where staff have been navigating client losses, cost cuts, and redundancies.
One former executive, who wished to remain anonymous, welcomed her “candid tone”. They described her remarks as “energising”.
“We’ve had a lot of corporate spin in the past, so it’s refreshing to see someone acknowledge the reality,” they told Mumbrella. “I also appreciate that she’s still managing to project optimism. That balance is exactly what WPP needs right now.”
A current WPP staffer, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “The message sounded positive, but that alone won’t fix the problems. People are worried about job cuts and shrinking bonuses. So until we see a clear strategy and real stability, speeches like this don’t do much to ease concerns.”
Rose has invited employees globally to a town hall on September 4, where she will outline the holdco’s “direction of travel” moving forward.
Closing her message, she said: “Until then, I wanna really thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your commitment, your tireless work, like what you do every day to deliver impact for our clients is just extraordinary, and I cannot wait to get out there and spend time with you and your clients to get to know you better, to learn from you and to support your success.”
Cindy Rose
Read Rose’s speech in full below:
“Hello everyone. I’m Cindy, and I’m so incredibly proud and honored to be joining WPP on September 1st as your CEO. You know, over the years I’ve been lucky enough to experience WPP from many different angles.
During my time at Vodafone, Virgin, and Microsoft, I was a client of Grey, VML, and Wunderman Thompson. During my time at Microsoft, I was also a strategic technology partner to WPP, helping the company embrace cloud and AI technology to drive our transformation.
And for the past six years, I’ve been a member of the WPP Board of Directors. So you could say I’ve been a mega fan of WPP for more than 15 years now, which is why I feel so privileged and inspired to work together with all of you to write WPPs next chapter, and our next chapter will be fantastic.
Now, I won’t sugarcoat this. We have a lot of hard work ahead, and of course it won’t be easy. But when I think about the assets that we have as a company, the brilliant people, we have the multi-award winning creative work that we produce, our beloved agency brands, our amazing clients, our global reach, our world leading technology capabilities. Wow. Like I cannot help but feel excited about our future.
So I’d like to invite you all to join me for a global town hall live from New York on September 4th, so that I can share a bit more about our direction of travel. You’ll be able to watch it together at some of our campuses around the world, and of course, we’ll record it for on-demand viewing so that no one from international time zones need to stay up in the middle of the night. We don’t want that.
You’ll all have an opportunity to ask me questions on the day, live in the room, and on online during the town hall Q&A, or if you’d prefer, please send your questions to me beforehand at askcindy@wpp.com.
Until then, I wanna really thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your commitment, your tireless work, like what you do every day to deliver impact for our clients is just extraordinary, and I cannot wait to get out there and spend time with you and your clients to get to know you better, to learn from you and to support your success.
I am, as you can probably tell, super excited to co-create the new WPP together.
Thank you and see you in September.”
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Lauren McNamara is a freelance journalist contributing to Mumbrella. She previously spent three years at the publication, most recently as the associate editor. She first joined in 2022 after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left her staff role at Mumbrella in August 2025.
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