Chief Learning and Development Officer

THE OPPORTUNITY

WPP is in the midst of the most consequential transformation in its history. Under CEO Cindy Rose, the

three-year Elevate28 strategy is rewiring the company around four priorities: AI-powered creativity, a

simplified operating model, a sharper client experience, and a high-performance culture. Mark Taylor joins

as Chief People Officer in that context — and one of his first, most strategic hires is the leader who will

design the capability engine that makes Elevate28 real for our people.

The Chief Learning & Development Officer (CLDO) will build and lead WPP's global learning function end-

to-end: enterprise-wide sales and client capability, leadership development, AI and craft skilling, and the

learning culture that holds it all together. This is not a traditional L&D remit. It is a commercial mandate —

build the capabilities that reshape how WPP wins, keeps and grows clients, and make learning one of the

most visible signals that WPP is the best place in the industry to build a career.

 

WHY THIS ROLE, NOW

Our clients are buying differently. The pitch is no longer a deck — it is a point of view, backed by data, co-

authored with AI, and brought to life by people who can sit in the C-suite and talk about the client's

business, not ours. Across WPP's 30+ agency brands, thousands of client-facing leaders need a sharper,

more consistent commercial playbook: consultative selling, executive presence, sector fluency, and the

confidence to lead transformational conversations with CMOs, CFOs and CEOs.

At the same time, AI is re-shaping every craft we sell. The CLDO will own the strategy that turns AI anxiety

into AI fluency — across creative, media, production, technology and client leadership — and will do so

in partnership with agency CEOs, the COO, the Chief Transformation Officer, and the Chief Technology

Officer.

Make WPP the best place to build a career in our industry. — Cindy Rose, CEO,

 

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

• Enterprise sales capability. Design and scale a global commercial academy that lifts the

consultative selling, C-suite engagement, negotiation and business-acumen muscle of several

thousand client-facing leaders across the WPP network — with measurable impact on pitch win

rates, organic growth and client tenure.

• Leadership development. Own the curriculum that develops WPP's leaders from first-time people

managers through to agency CEOs, anchored in our six leadership dimensions. Partner with the

CPO on succession, high-potential programmes and executive coaching architecture.

• AI fluency at scale. Build the learning strategy that makes AI a core capability for every role —

from creative teams using generative tools to leaders making capital-allocation decisions about AI

bets. Partner with the Chief AI Officer and agency leaders to make fluency practical, not

theoretical.

• Craft, client & sector mastery. Codify and scale the craft expertise — creative, media, production,

data, technology — and the sector fluency (CPG, retail, financial services, tech, pharma) that

differentiates WPP in the pitch room and the boardroom.

• Learning culture & infrastructure. Rebuild the global learning ecosystem: platforms, content

strategy, coaching practice, measurement, and the governance that connects every programme to

a business outcome. Move WPP from training-as-events to learning-as-a-continuous-capability-

advantage.

• Team & operating model. Lead a global L&D organisation distributed across regions and agency

brands. Build a high-performing team, set the operating model, and run the function with the

commercial rigour of a P&L.

THE CANDIDATE

We are looking for a senior learning leader with the credibility, scale and commercial instinct to operate as

a genuine peer to the C-suite. The ideal candidate has built enterprise sales and leadership capability at

global scale — most likely inside a multinational tech, professional services, consumer or consulting

business where learning is treated as a strategic lever, not a back-office function.

• Enterprise scale. leader.

You have led a learning organisation supporting tens of thousands of employees

across multiple geographies, and you are comfortable operating as a CVP-, SVP- or CLO-level

• Commercial capability-building. You have built, measured and scaled consultative selling, client

engagement and C-suite-readiness programmes that changed seller behaviour and moved

commercial KPIs — win rates, deal size, client retention, organic growth.

• AI-native learning leader. You are not just teaching AI; you are using AI to re-engineer learning

itself — adaptive paths, AI coaching, simulation, measurement. Candidates who bring recent,

tangible experience shipping AI-powered learning at scale will stand out.

• Executive gravitas. You earn the trust of CEOs, CROs, CFOs and agency leaders. You can influence

a boardroom conversation about capability investment as credibly as you can design a coaching

conversation for a first-time manager.

• Talent magnet & culture builder. You attract exceptional L&D talent and build teams that clients,

employees and leaders describe as indispensable. You treat psychological safety and high

performance as two sides of the same coin.

Who you are: