WPP

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WPP’s 2001 revenues were $5791m: Advertising accounted for 46%; specialist communications, 27%; info and consultancy, 15%; and public relations and affairs, 12.3%. Including associates, the Group had over 65,000 full-time people in over 1,400 offices in 103 countries at the end of 2001. In 2001 WPP worked for over 300 of the Fortune Global 500 companies and over half of the Nasdaq 100. WPP serviced 330 national or multi-national clients in three or more disciplines and over 150 clients in four disciplines. Globally, WPP worked with over 100 clients in six or more countries (WPP, 2001, p. 2).


The global WPP group encompasses the J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Tempus, Grey Global and Young & Rubicam advertising agencies. The conglomerate also includes public relations, media planning and buying, marketing and research services through Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller, MindShare and The Kantar Group.

evolution of the group

WPP czar Martin Sorrell was the 'third brother' at Saatchi & Saatchi (now part of Publicis) from 1975 to 1986 before acquiring UK shopping cart manufacturer Wire & Plastic Products (WPP). He used WPP as a vehicle for acquiring 'below-the-line' advertising-related businesses.

In 1987 he made a successful US$566m hostile bid for the venerable J. Walter Thompson. Two years later he expanded the group through the US$825m purchase of the equally prestigious Ogilvy & Mather, despite opposition from ad icon David Ogilvy (1911-1999).

In 2003 WPP successfully bid for the ailing Cordiant group, acquired for a mere US$17 million (plus assumption of debts). It acquired Grey Global in 2004 with cash and shares worth just over US$1.3bn (£720m). As of 2000 Grey had sales of US$1,247 million and earnings of US$19 million.Source [1]

Management

  • Sir Martin Sorrell Chief executive. Martin Sorrell joined WPP in 1986 as a director, becoming Group chief executive in the same year. e-mail: msorrell@wpp.com

Mark Read Strategy Director Appointed a director in March 2005, Mark Read has been WPP's director of strategy since 2002. He worked at WPP between 1989 and 1995 in both parent company and operating company roles. Prior to rejoining WPP in 2002, he was a principal at the consultancy firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton and founded and developed the company WebRewards in the UK. e-mail: mread@wpp.com

Howard Paster Director Howard Paster was appointed a director in January 2003. He was previously chairman and chief executive officer of Hill & Knowlton, Inc. He joined the WPP parent company in August 2002, overseeing WPP's portfolio of public relations and public affairs businesses. He is also the director responsible for the Company's Corporate Social Responsibility policy. Prior to joining Hill & Knowlton Inc., he served as assistant to President Clinton and director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. He is a member of the board of trustees of Tuskegee University, president of the Little League Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. e-mail: hpaster@wpp.com

Esther Dyson Non-executive director Esther Dyson was appointed a director in 1999. She is chairman of EDventure Holdings, the pioneering US-based company focused on information technology and new media. Having recently sold her business to CNET Networks, the US based interactive media company, she is now their editor-at-large. She is an acknowledged luminary in the technology industry, highly influential in her field for the past 20 years, with a state-of-the-art knowledge of the online/information technology industry worldwide, and the emerging information technology markets of Central and Eastern Europe. An investor as well as an analyst/observer, she sits on the boards of IBS Group, Meetup.com, NewspaperDirect, CV-Online and Graphicsoft, and on the consumer advisory of Orbitz, among others.

Orit Gadiesh Non-executive director Orit Gadiesh was appointed a director in April 2004. She is chairman of Bain & Company, Inc. and a world-renowned expert on management and corporate strategy. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and was a Baker Scholar. She is an active board member at Harvard Business School and Kellogg School in the US and the Haute Ecole Commerciale in France. She sits on the Boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New England and the Peres Institute for Peace and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

David H Komansky Non-executive director David Komansky was appointed a director in January 2003. He was chairman of the Board of Merrill Lynch & Co, Inc. serving until his retirement on 28 April 2003. He served as chief executive officer from 1996 to 2002, having begun his career at Merrill Lynch in 1968. Among many professional affiliations, he serves as a director of Black Rock, Inc. and as a member of the International Advisory Board of the British American Business Council. Active in many civic and charitable organisations, he serves on the Boards of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, the American Museum of Natural History and the National Academy Foundation.

Christopher Mackenzie Non-executive director Christopher Mackenzie was appointed a director in 2000. He is chief executive of Equilibrium, a London-based financial advisory partnership, and Executive Chairman of Brunswick Capital, Russia's leading investment bank and non-bank financial services group. He is also a board member of ALJ, Saudi Arabia's largest non-government industrial group. Previously he was president and CEO of Trizec Properties and a company officer of GE, heading GE Capital's international business development.

Stanley (Bud) Morten Non-executive director Bud Morten was appointed a director in 1991. He is a consultant and private investor. He is currently the Independent Consultant to Citigroup/Smith Barney with responsibility for its independent research requirements. Previously he was the chief operating officer of Punk, Ziegel & Co, a New York investment banking firm with a focus on the healthcare and technology industries. Before that he was the managing director of the equity division of Wertheim Schroder & Co, Inc. in New York. He is a non-executive director of Register.com Inc., a NASDAQ-listed US public company.

Koichiro Naganuma Non-executive director Koichiro Naganuma was appointed a director in 2004. He is president and group chief operating officer of Asatsu-DK. Mr. Nagauma joined Asatsu-DK in 1981 and his roles have included executive director of the International Division, managing director of Asatsu Worldwide Company and President of the Overseas Network. He replaces Masao Inagaki on the Board who retired upon the appointment of Mr. Naganuma. Asatsu-DK is Japan's third largest advertising and communications company, in which WPP took a 20% interest in 1998.

Lubna Olayan Non-executive Director As CEO of Olayan Financing Company, Lubna Olayan is responsible for the Olayan Group's business and investments in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. In December 2004, she was elected to the Board of Saudi Hollandi Bank, the first woman to be elected to the board of a Saudi listed company. From 1996 through 2004, she served on the board of Chelsfield, the UK property developer. She is a member of INSEAD's International Council and a trustee of the Arab Thought Foundation. She is also a member on the Arab Business Council and the Women's Leadership Initiative of the World Economic Forum.

John Quelch Non-executive director John Quelch was appointed a director in 1988. He is Senior Associate Dean and Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Between 1998 and 2001 he was Dean of the London Business School. He also serves as chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority. Professor Quelch is an expert on global business practice in emerging as well as developed markets, international marketing and the role of the multinational corporation and the nation state. He is a non-executive director of Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. and served previously on the boards of Blue Circle Industries plc, easyJet plc, Pentland Group plc and Reebok International Limited.

Jeffrey Rosen Non-executive director Appointed a director in January 2005, Jeffrey Rosen is deputy chairman and managing director of Lazard LLC. A highly experienced financier, Mr. Rosen brings more than 30 years' working knowledge of international investment banking. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the International Advisory Board of BABi, the successor of the British American Chamber of Commerce. A Yale graduate, he holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Non-executive director Paul Spencer was appointed a director in April 2004. He is a financier with 20 years' experience in the financial management of a number of blue chip companies, including British Leyland PLC, Rolls-Royce PLC, Hanson PLC and Royal & Sun Alliance UK. He served as UK Chief Executive of Royal & Sun Alliance PLC between 1999 and 2002. He is the non-executive chairman of the State Street Managed Pension Funds and of Goshawk Insurance Group PLC and a non-executive director of NS&I, a UK government-owned retail savings institution and of Britannic Group plc. He is also the chairman of the Association of Corporate Treasurers Advisory Board.

shape

An indication of WPP's shape and extent is provided here.

Y&R

The group includes Madison Avenue agency Young & Rubicam, co-founded by Raymond Rubicam (1892-1978) and John Orr Young in 1923.

O&M

David Ogilvy (famous for quips such as "The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife") founded New York-based agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in 1948 after entering the industry at age 38. The name changed to Ogilvy Benson & Mather in 1953, became Ogilvy & Mather International in 1965 through a merger with Ogilvy's original backers London agency Mather & Crowther, and was renamed Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in the mid-80s before being put into Mr Sorrell's shopping cart.

Further reading

David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising (New York: Crown 1983), David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man (New York: Atheneum 1963) David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains & Beer: the Autobiography of David Ogilvy (New York: Wiley 1997)

Richard Morgan, J Walter Takeover: From Divine Right to Common Stock (Homewood: Dow Jones-Irwin 1991). Lester Wunderman, Being Direct (New York: Random 1996).

Karen Miller, The Voice of Business: Hill & Knowlton and postwar public relations (Chapel Hill: Uni of North Carolina Press 1998) Sudan Trento, Power House: Robert Keith Gray & the selling of access and influence in Washington (New York: St Martins 1992).

Subsidiaries

A-C

D-F

G-I

J-L

M-O

P-R

S-U

V-Z

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