WPP names transformation chief
WPP appointed Anne‑Isabelle Choueiri as its first chief transformation officer to lead an Elevate28 plan that narrows the holding group's focus to four AI‑centric pillars and seeks £500m in savings by 2028. Trade reports also say WPP is exploring a sale of its PR arm Burson as part of the restructuring. ( )
WPP has named Anne-Isabelle Choueiri its first chief transformation officer to run the overhaul behind the advertising group’s Elevate28 plan. (wpp.com) WPP said on April 10 that Choueiri will design and embed the operating model for Elevate28, a three-year plan Chief Executive Officer Cindy Rose unveiled on February 26, 2026. Choueiri was previously chief executive officer of WPP’s T&Pm in the Middle East and chief client officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at GroupM. (wpp.com) Elevate28 shifts WPP from a holding-company structure toward what it calls a “single company” built around four lines of business: creative, media, production and business transformation. WPP told investors the plan aims for £500 million in gross savings by 2028 and about £400 million in cash restructuring costs over two years. (wpp.com; wpp.com) The reorganization follows a weak 2025 for WPP. The company said like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs fell 1.0% in the fourth quarter and 0.7% for the full year, while it also flagged client losses and pressure in some markets. (wpp.com; marketingdive.com) WPP has tied the plan directly to artificial intelligence, saying the slimmer structure is meant to deliver integrated, AI-enabled services faster across agencies that had long operated as separate networks. The company has also rolled out products including Agent Hub on WPP Open and expanded an Adobe partnership around AI-driven marketing operations in 2026. (wpp.com; wpp.com) Trade reporting has added another possible piece to that restructuring. Marketing-Interactive, citing a report by The Times, said on April 13 that WPP had begun exploring a sale of Burson, its public relations arm, in what could become the first major divestment under Elevate28. (marketing-interactive.com) Burson itself is a recent combination. WPP merged BCW and Hill & Knowlton in January 2024, with the new agency operating from July 1, 2024 under the Burson name. (campaignasia.com) WPP’s public materials announcing Choueiri’s appointment did not mention a Burson sale, and the company’s latest investor pages still list strategic updates around simplification rather than any confirmed disposal. For now, the confirmed move is the creation of a new executive post to push the overhaul from plan into execution. (wpp.com; wpp.com)
