Karen Blackett is the primary individual to be made president of WPP within the UK, persevering with her regular rise on the group the place she’s labored for practically 20 years.
Blackett is a giant expertise and an enormous asset to WPP due to her standing within the UK enterprise neighborhood, her MBE, her shopper abilities and her stance on variety. She has been promoted commonly since she began work at WPP in 2004 and her subsequent cease is definitely world.
Her promotion follows the latest appointment of Rose Herceg and Michael Houston to president roles in Australia & New Zealand and the US respectively. A substitute for Blackett’s function as UK CEO of GroupM will probably be introduced quickly, however the UK nation supervisor function will not exist.
Blackett began her profession at CIA MediaNetwork within the early 90s, and her WPP profession started when the group purchased MediaCom (the place she was advertising director) in 2004. She was made chair of the company in 2016, grew to become WPP nation supervisor in 2018, and added the GroupM UK CEO title in 2020.
Blackett stated: “I took on the GroupM function within the first week of lockdown in 2020, with a concentrate on guiding the enterprise by the pandemic and starting the transformation of GroupM within the UK. We’ve made big progress and achieved a lot in these two and a half years and I’m delighted to have the ability to hand the baton to a brand new chief with the organisation in good well being. The UK is such an essential marketplace for WPP, with so many incredible folks, purchasers and companions, and I’m wanting ahead to with the ability to commit all of my time and a spotlight to the nation management function.”
The transfer is offered as a option to simplify WPP’s operations within the UK, which is the group’s second largest territory after the US, with advert revenues of $2bn and a employees of 12,000.
Mark Learn, CEO of WPP, stated: “As we convey our companies collectively in our new campuses and ship more and more built-in providers for our purchasers, the size and significance of the UK market requires a task with full-time focus. We additionally discovered throughout lockdown – when it was important we acted as one firm – how essential it’s to have devoted nation management in our main markets all over the world. Karen is among the most admired figures in our business and the sort of collaborative, people-focused chief who is ideal for this function.”
WPP has just lately opened Rose Court docket, one other constructing close to its Sea Containers HQ in Southwark, and plans to maneuver into the refurbished former Monetary Occasions constructing, additionally close by.
