Philip Jansen, the outgoing BT Group Chief Executive, has been approached about becoming the next chairman of advertising and marketing group WPP, according to a Sky News report.
Sky News reported that Jansen, who is to step down from BT in the spring, is one of a number of prospective candidates to have been sounded out in recent weeks about the post.
WPP signalled last year that it had begun succession planning to find a replacement for Roberto Quarta, its chairman since 2015.
Last year, BT appointed Allison Kirkby as chief executive to replace Jansen, effective from around the end of this month.
BT had previously said Jansen would remain as CEO until Kirkby took over, and he would be available to support the handover until the end of March, at which point he intended to retire from executive life.
City sources told Sky News that WPP’s search was not yet at an advanced stage and there was no certainty that Jansen or WPP would decide to progress his candidacy further.
A former boss at MyTravel and Worldpay, Jansen began his career at Procter & Gamble.
Headquartered in London, WPP’s subsidiaries include Grey, Ogilvy, VMLY&R, Group M and Wunderman Thompson.
You are not signed in
Only registered users can comment on this article.
IBC launches study to map the media technology talent pipeline
IBC has launched How Did You Get Here?, a study designed to better understand how people enter and build careers in media technology.
Netflix kicks of landmark distribution deal with France’s TF1
Leading French broadcaster TF1’s live channels and streamer TF1+ are now available on Netflix’s platform in France following a landmark distribution deal between the two companies.
UK government sets out plans to give prominence for PSB news on social media
The UK government has set out plans to make social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook give greater prominence to news from public service media.
Warner Bros. Discovery teams with AWS for agentic AI ad-tech
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has partnered with cloud provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) to develop its next-generation advertising experiences built with AWS agentic AI.
Active International picks Comcast Technology Solutions
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced that Active International, the global media and corporate trade group, is using Comcast AdFusion to modernise and scale its broadcast ad traffic and creative distribution operations.



