WPP announced the appointment of Elav Horwitz as its first Chief Innovation Officer, a position designed to strengthen the company’s applied AI capabilities and technology-driven client solutions.
In this role, Elav will connect WPP’s partner network with the company’s creative and strategic teams, focusing on collaboration and agile innovation to drive AI adoption and client transformation. She will continue to report to WPP Chief Technology Officer Stephan Pretorius.
Elav also serves as an advisor to groups like the Spotify and Meta Creative Councils and is a founding member of the leadership community Chief. Her appointment follows recent additions to WPP’s innovation team, including Daniel Barak as Global Creative and Innovation Lead, Sarah Salter as VP of Global Partnerships & AI Innovation, and Mathieu Albrand as Director of AI Strategy and Innovation.
WPP’s innovation team will focus on three pillars: leveraging innovative talent, providing client access to cutting-edge AI models and technologies through partnerships with companies like Adobe, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and others, and embedding ‘innovation in motion’ across the organization, including client co-creation and internal workflow improvements.
Strategic initiatives under Elav’s leadership have already led to measurable client results, such as AKQA’s ‘The Generative Store’, enhancing personalized retail experiences and campaign planning.
The announcement comes alongside the launch of WPP Open Pro, the updated AI marketing platform designed to enable brands to independently plan, create, and publish campaigns using WPP’s AI capabilities.
“Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at WPP, and Elav’s promotion to Chief Innovation Officer together with the world-class team she is assembling underscores our commitment to actively shape the future of our industry,” said Stephan Pretorius, Chief Technology Officer of WPP. “She will be instrumental in ensuring our company remains at the center of technology-driven innovation, translating the power of applied AI into concrete solutions that drive material business impact for our clients.”
“Never before has the need for innovation and agility been more critical than in our AI era,” Elav Horwitz, Chief Innovation Officer of WPP, said. “We must show our teams, clients and the entire industry what’s possible by uniting the best talents, capabilities, partners and a forward-thinking mindset, enabling us to deliver results in a matter of hours and make the future both tangible and democratised.”
“As we rewrite the marketing playbook for the AI era, we’re thrilled to have Elav lead our innovation agenda,” said Cindy Rose, CEO of WPP. “This appointment underscores our investment to embed innovation into the core of everything we do, ensuring our clients benefit from the most advanced and effective solutions.”
