Anne-Isabelle Choueiri.
WPP has hired Anne-Isabelle Choueiri from Estée Lauder to drive the global advertising group’s restructure plan, Elevate28.
She has been installed in a newly created role, chief transformation officer, responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operations that underpin the three-year growth plan unveiled in February this year.
"Delivering on our Elevate28 strategy requires us to fundamentally transform how we operate and how we show up for clients,” said WPP CEO Cindy Rose.
“Anne-Isabelle has a proven track record of leading this kind of evolution at scale across operations, technology and culture in innovative ways.
“She is exactly the leader we need to drive bold, lasting change at WPP and I'm delighted to welcome her to the team as we work together to unlock our next chapter of growth."
WPP, fighting a slide in revenue and profits, clients losses and a weak share price, will transition from a holding company structure to a single company with core operating units: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production and WPP Enterprise Solutions.
The advertising group, once the world’s largest, posted full year 2025 revenue of £13.55 billion, down 8.1% on a reported basis and down 3.6% like-for-like.
Rose, who took over the company from Mark Read last year, says the recent underperformance has been driven by excessive organisational complexity, a lack of an integrated operating model and inconsistent strategic execution.
The Elevate28 strategy sees WPP emerge as a simpler, lower-cost, AI-enabled business. The strategic plan includes new cost cutting of £500 million and a return to organic growth during 2027.
Choueiri, based in New York, will lead organisational transformation across WPP, working closely with product and enterprise tech teams to harness AI, technology and data to unlock new capabilities and drive operational excellence.
She will also partner with the company’s people function to make culture a strategic lever for transformation, building an agile, high-performance mindset across the organisation that accelerates change, embeds new ways of working and attracts world-class talent.
At Estée Lauder, she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including shaping the “One ELC” operating model and transforming its enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities.
She led the transformation and redesign of enterprise technology teams and served as a core member of the company's AI taskforce – responsible for leading AI strategy and implementation, including the scaling and adoption of tools as well as driving value realisation from AI across the business.
Previously, she has held leadership roles at consultancies including Accenture, Masaï – a Bain & Co spin-off – and Kearney. She also has a background leading data and digital marketing agencies.
Choueiri said WPP has set out an ambitious and exciting vision for the future.
“I'm honoured to join at such a pivotal moment,” she said.
“I look forward to working with Cindy and her team to transform how we operate and deliver for our clients – ensuring we continue to build integrated solutions that drive real impact. “Lasting transformation requires the right culture and operational mindset and I'm excited to help build an environment where innovation thrives and our people are empowered to embrace change."
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