Will WPP’s first female CEO Cindy Rose take home as much as Mark Read?

New Delhi: Cindy Rose, the newly appointed first female Chief Executive Officer of WPP, will draw a base annual salary of £1.25 million when she officially assumes the role on September 1, 2025.

In addition to her base salary, Rose will be eligible for short-term and long-term incentive plans, standard pension and benefits contributions, and a buy-out arrangement to compensate for incentives forfeited upon her departure from Microsoft.

To put it in perspective, outgoing WPP CEO Mark Read’s fixed annual compensation amounted to £1.3 million in 2024, inclusive of salary, pension, and benefits. However, he earned a total compensation of £3.8 million, down 15% from £4.5 million in 2023.

In 2022, Read's total compensation was approximately £6.4 million. This included a base salary of £1.2 million and £5.2 million in short-term and long-term incentives. This marked a significant increase from the £3.6 million he received in 2021.

Read will remain with the company until the end of the year to support the leadership transition.

While Rose’s base salary is at par with Read’s, her earnings through incentives will depend on the financial performance of the holding company.

Rose brings a wealth of experience from the global technology, telecommunications, media, entertainment, and creative industries. Over the past nine years, she has held senior executive positions at Microsoft, including President of Microsoft Western Europe and CEO of Microsoft UK.

Her earlier career includes roles as Managing Director of Vodafone’s UK consumer business and Executive Director of Digital Entertainment and Media Sales at Virgin Media. She also spent 15 years at The Walt Disney Company, ultimately serving as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Disney Interactive Media Group, EMEA.

Rose has served on WPP’s Board as a Non-Executive Director since 2019. She is a graduate of Columbia University and New York Law School, and currently serves as an Advisory Board Member at Imperial College Business School in London and McLaren Racing.