Andrew Scott, WPP’s global COO and M&A guru, to step down after 27 years

Andrew Scott, the chief operating officer of WPP and a key player in its M&A deal-making for decades, is to step down after 27 years.

He is known as one of the closest allies of Mark Read, the outgoing chief executive of WPP, who formally hands control to Cindy Rose, the new CEO, this weekend. She starts on Monday, September 1.

WPP said Scott will work with Rose and remain as COO on the board until the end of the year, before becoming a senior adviser.

He will “transition his various roles and responsibilities to other senior executives as well as supporting strategy execution”, according to a statement to the stock market.

WPP did not say whether Rose planned to appoint a new COO when asked by Campaign.

Scott first became joint COO, alongside Read, in April 2018 after Sir Martin Sorrell abruptly departed as CEO. He went on to be the sole COO when Read got the top job in September of that year.

Scott and Read had a close working relationship, sharing desks next to each other at WPP’s Sea Containers HQ. Scott went on to join the WPP board in 2023. He had joined WPP as director of corporate development in 1999 under Sorrell’s leadership and played a key role in driving its M&A during a highly acquisitive period in the early 2000s.

“He has been responsible for many of the acquisitions that helped create the business that WPP is today,” the company said, pointing to recent purchases such as Satalia and InfoSum and disposals such as Kantar and FGS Global. 

Other landmark acquisitions during Scott's time included AKQA, Essence, Grey and MediaCom. “Andrew has been across pretty much every M&A deal they’ve done,” an investment banker told Campaign in 2018.

Scott knows Rose because she has been a non-executive director of WPP since 2019. The company announced Read was stepping down in June and Rose's appointment in July. She has most recently been COO of global enterprise at Microsoft.

Scott said: “After 27 years at WPP, and at a time of transition for the business, it feels like the right moment to make this change.

“I’ve known Cindy for a long time and worked closely with her on the board of WPP, and I'm excited for the future of WPP under her leadership.

“I’d also like to thank Mark and the rest of the team for all the support they've given me over the years.”

Read added: “Few people have done more than Andrew to shape WPP and to drive its success over the last three decades. He has been a brilliant partner to me and the wider leadership team throughout and has made a tremendous contribution to WPP in his most recent role as chief operating officer.”

WPP announced the news at 3pm on Friday afternoon but an industry source played down any significance about the timing and noted it was a regulatory requirement to tell the stock market about a board change.

WPP has already said Rose plans a review of strategy as the British agency group faces a second year in a row of declining revenues.