WPP leadership

WPP's Board of directors is collectively responsible for promoting the success of the Company by directing and supervising the Group's strategy and is responsible to shareowners for the Group's financial and operational performance.

Philip Lader
Sir Martin Sorrell
Paul Richardson
Mark Read
Colin Day
Esther Dyson
Orit Gadiesh
David Komansky
Stanley (Bud) Morten
Koichiro Naganuma
Lubna Olayan
John Quelch
Jeffrey Rosen
Timothy Shriver
Paul Spencer

Philip Lader
Non-Executive chairman | Letter of appointment - Philip Lader
Philip Lader was appointed chairman in 2001. The US Ambassador to the Court of St. James' from 1997 to 2001, he previously served as a Member of the President's Cabinet and as White House Deputy Chief of Staff. A lawyer, he is also a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley, a director of RAND, Marathon Oil and EAS Corporations, a member of the Council of Lloyd's (Insurance Market), a trustee of the British Museum and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sir Martin Sorrell
Chief executive
Sir Martin Sorrell joined WPP in 1985 as a director, becoming Group chief executive in 1986.

Paul Richardson
Finance director
Paul Richardson became Group finance director in 1996 after four years as director of treasury. He is responsible for the Group's worldwide functions in finance, information technology, procurement and property. Previously with the central finance team of Hanson PLC, he is a non-executive director of Chime Communications PLC and STW Communications Group Limited in Australia.

Mark Read
Strategy director
Mark Read was appointed a director in March 2005. He has been WPP's director of strategy since 2002. He worked at WPP between 1989 and 1995 in both parent company and operating company roles. Prior to rejoining WPP in 2002, he was a principal at Booz-Allen & Hamilton and founded and developed the company WebRewards in the UK.

Colin Day
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Colin Day
Appointed a Non-Executive Director in July 2005. He is Group Finance Director of Reckitt Benckiser plc, having been appointed to its Board in September 2000. Prior to joining Reckitt Benckiser he as Group Finance Director of Aegis Group plc and previously held a number of senior finance positions with ABB Group plc and De La Rue Group plc. He is a Non-Executive Director of WPP plc and until 30 September 2005 of easyjet PLC.

Esther Dyson
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson was appointed a director in 1999. An acknowledged luminary in the online/information technology industry and the emerging information technology markets of Central and Eastern Europe, she is editor of Release 1.0, hosts the annual PC Forum conference and as an angel investor recently participated in the sale of Flickr to Yahoo!. She sits on the boards of other IT start-ups including EVDB, Meetup.com, NewspaperDirect (Canada), CV-Online (Hungary) and Yandex (Russia).

Orit Gadiesh
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Orit Gadiesh
Orit Gadiesh was appointed a director in April 2004. She is chairman of Bain & Company, Inc. and a world-renowned expert on management and corporate strategy. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and was a Baker Scholar. She is a board member of the HBS Visiting Committee (Harvard Business School) and Dean's Advisory Board (Kellogg School) in the US and the Haute Ecole Commerciale in France. She sits on the Boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New England and the Peres Institute for Peace and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

David Komansky
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - David Komansky
Appointed a director in January 2003, David Komansky was chairman of the Board of Merrill Lynch & Co, Inc, until his retirement in 2003. He served as chief executive officer from 1996 to 2002, having begun his career there in 1968. He serves as a director of Black Rock, Inc., is a member of the International Advisory Board of the British American Business Council and serves on the Boards of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, the American Museumof Natural History and the National Academy Foundation.

Stanley (Bud) Morten
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Stanley Morten
Bud Morten was appointed a director in 1991. A consultant and private investor, he is currently the independent consultant to Citigroup/Smith Barney with responsibility for its independent research requirements. Previously he was the chief operating officer of Punk, Ziegel & Co, a New York investment banking firm. Before that he was the managing director of the equity division of Wertheim Schroder & Co, Inc. in New York. He is a non-executive director of Register.com Inc., a NASDAQ-listed US public company.

Koichiro Naganuma
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Koichiro Naganuma
Koichiro Naganuma was appointed a director in February 2004. He is president and group chief operating officer of Asatsu-DK. Having joined ADK in 1981, he began his career with the international arm of the agency, his mandate expanding the total operation of the group. He replaced ADK Chairman Masao Inagaki on the Board. ADK is Japan's third largest advertising and communications company. WPP took a 20% interest in ADK in 1998.

Lubna Olayan
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Lubna Olayan
As CEO of Olayan Financing Company, Lubna Olayan is responsible for the Olayan Group's business and investments in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. In December 2004, she was elected to the Board of Saudi Hollandi Bank. From 1996 through 2004, she served on the board of Chelsfield, the UK property developer. She is a member of INSEAD's International Council and a trustee of the Arab Thought Foundation. She is also a member on the Arab Business Council and the Women's Leadership Initiative of the World Economic Forum.

John Quelch
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - John Quelch
Appointed a director in 1988, Jon Quelch is Senior Associate Dean and Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Formerly Dean of the London Business School, he is an expert in global business practice in emerging and developed markets and international marketing, non-executive director of Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., Pepsi Bottling Group Inc and chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority. He has served on the boards of Blue Circle Industries plc, easyJet plc, Pentland Group plc and Reebok International Limited. John Quelch presents how-to marketing advice on the ever-changing world of marketing, in his blog Marketing KnowHow.

Jeffrey Rosen
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Jeffrey Rosen
Jeffrey Rosen was appointed a director in December 2004. He is a deputy chairman and managing director of Lazard LLC. Previously, he was a managing director of Wasserstein Perella & Co., Inc. since its inception in 1988, and chairman of Wasserstein Perella International. He has over 30 years' experience in international investment banking and corporate finance. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is president of the Board of Trustees of the International Center of Photography in New York.

Timothy Shriver
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Timothy Shriver
Appointed a director in August 2007, Mr Shriver is Chairman of Special Olympics, a global organisation founded in 1968 by his mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, which provides sports training and athletic competition for people with intellectual disabilities. He is also a distinguished educator, social champion and a successful Hollywood film and television producer. He currently serves on the Board of the Education Commission of the United States Compact for Learning and Citizenship, chairs the Board of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a regular participant in the World Economic Forum.

Paul Spencer
Non-Executive director | Letter of appointment - Paul Spencer
Appointed a director in April 2004, Paul Spencer brings 20 years' experience in the financial management of blue chip companies including British Leyland PLC, Rolls-Royce PLC, Hanson PLC and Royal & Sun Alliance PLC, for which he served as UK chief executive between 1999 and 2002. He is the non-executive chairman of State Street Managed Pension Funds and Goshawk Insurance Group PLC, chairman of the Association of Corporate Treasurers' Advisory Board and of NS&I (National Savings). He is also on the boards of Nipponkoa Insurance Europe Ltd, Sovereign Reversions Group plc and Britannic Group plc, and is a governor of Motability, a UK charity for the disabled.