Inside WPP's Overhaul: From Complexity to Client Focus

WPP, the world's largest advertising group, has named two new global presidents of client growth. Toby Jenner and Philip Heimann have been appointed to the newly created roles, both joining WPP's executive committee and reporting directly to chief operating officer Devika Bulchandani.

The announcement came via an internal memo confirmed by trade publications in early May 2026. Jenner previously served as global chief business officer of WPP Media. Heimann was global chief marketing and growth officer at Ogilvy.

This is not a routine reshuffle. It is part of a much bigger plan to fix a company that has been losing ground fast.

WPP's Numbers Tell a Stark Story

WPP full-year 2025 revenue fell over 8% to £13.55 billion. In Q1 2026, revenue dropped another 6.7% compared to the same period last year. Revenue from WPP's top 25 clients slid 9.4% in Q1 2026, a direct result of losing major client contracts.

The most high-profile loss was Coca-Cola's North American media account, estimated at around US$700 million in annual spend, which moved to rival Publicis Groupe. Omnicom landed the IBM media account as WPP stepped aside. These were not small setbacks.

CEO Cindy Rose, who took over from Mark Read on January 1, 2026, was blunt about the cause. She attributed WPP's underperformance to "excessive organizational complexity, a lack of an integrated operating model and inconsistent strategic execution." WPP's own structure was getting in the way of serving clients.

What the New Roles Actually Do

The global client growth president roles are designed to solve exactly that problem. Instead of major clients navigating between separate WPP agencies for creative, media, digital, and PR, they will now have one senior executive responsible for the entire relationship across all WPP units.

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This sits inside WPP's Elevate28 strategy, unveiled in February 2026, which aims to cut £500 million in annual costs by 2028 and return the group to organic growth in 2027. The plan reorganizes WPP into four operating units: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production, and WPP Enterprise Solutions. Within WPP Creative, Ogilvy, VML, AKQA, and PR firm Burson are merging under a single leadership layer.

The client growth presidents sit above all of this, acting as the senior point of accountability for WPP's biggest global clients.

The Competitive Pressure Is Real

Publicis grew organic revenue by 4.5% in Q1 2026 and won roughly twice as many new business pitches as WPP in 2025. Omnicom expanded through its IPG acquisition to become the industry's largest group by scale.

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun accused WPP of trying to "squeeze to please Wall Street" through mass layoffs rather than investing in growth. With WPP's debt up 24% year-on-year to £2.2 billion in 2025 and £400 million in restructuring costs to absorb, the pressure on Cindy Rose is significant.

Alongside the appointments, WPP has quietly piloted outcome-based pricing, linking agency fees to measurable client business results rather than hours billed. The new client growth presidents are central to making that model work.

What It Means for APAC

For marketing leaders in Asia, the structural changes hit close to home. WPP Media has introduced a new APMEA model splitting Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa into six sub-regions with dedicated presidents. Kyoko Matsushita was elevated to CEO of WPP Creative APAC in March 2026. Prasanth Kumar now leads WPP Media across India and Sri Lanka.

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For clients of WPP agencies across the region, the senior accountability structure above your existing agency relationships has changed. The client growth president layer is the new escalation point for decisions that span multiple WPP units. Whether that fixes the client retention problem is the question WPP still has to answer.