Mark Linaugh appointed as Chief Talent Officer

14 Apr 2005

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mark Linaugh as Chief Talent Officer at WPP, succeeding Beth Axelrod. Mark joins us from the best of perspectives after two successful years as Chief Talent Officer with Ogilvy. So he knows us well already. Mark will join us effective May 1 although he will be immediately involved with all aspects of our talent operations. While this is, of course, a roving role, he will be based in our New York office at 125 Park Avenue. We will be looking to Mark to help us attract, manage, evaluate, compensate, motivate, develop and retain our top talent and ensure that WPP companies continue to be the destination of choice for the brightest talents in the industry. He brings valuable and relevant skills to our industry and his popularity, warmth and enthusiasm, I feel sure, will quickly win him a legion of new friends across the Group.

An engineer by training (can you believe it?), working around the world, he transferred to human resources at Nortel Networks, where he had global responsibility for development programs and client relations. After 13 years, he moved to Time,Inc in 1999 where he was VP Human Resources leading initiatives in development, staffing, succession, restructuring, acquisition and client relations.

Mark has a BA in economics from William & Mary, an MBA from Wharton (another mistake!) and is completing a doctorate at George Washington University.

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Martin Sorrell WPP CEO