Since becoming CEO in September 2018, Mark has made culture a cornerstone of WPP’s new strategy. His commitment to create a more inclusive WPP has led to an increase in the proportion of women at the most senior levels: the number of women on WPP’s board has increased to 42%, and the number of women leading WPP’s 20 biggest global brands has doubled under his leadership. Mark continues to champion WPP’s Stella, Propeller and Walk the Talk networks, which provide mid-level and senior women with networking, coaching and help with increasing their internal and external profiles. He and his team have introduced new guidelines for best-practice maternity, paternity and flexible working policies, and made unconscious bias training part of WPP’s ethics training for all staff. Mark has been vocal about the need for WPP and the wider industry to reflect the diversity of society to help clients better connect with consumers. In January, through his membership of the Male Champions of Change Global Tech Group, he called on male leaders to improve gender equality in the technology sector. Mark sees pay gap reporting as a positive move, forcing businesses to act faster and think harder about what can be done to achieve the ultimate goal of equal representation in executive leadership. He shared WPP’s own challenges at the launch event of the Women in Advertising and Communications report into the industry’s gender ‘leadership gap’, speaking of a need for a generational and cultural shift in leadership to better understand what women need to succeed.