Philip Jansen, the outgoing BT Group boss, has been approached about turning into the subsequent chairman of WPP, the FTSE-100 advertising and marketing companies big.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Jansen, who’s to step down from the telecoms firm within the spring, is one among quite a few potential candidates to have been sounded out in current weeks in regards to the submit.

City sources stated on Monday that WPP’s search was not but at a sophisticated stage and there was no certainty that Mr Jansen or WPP would resolve to progress his candidacy additional.

His impending exit from BT has prompted hypothesis about his company future, with a transfer to the US or into personal fairness each potentialities.

A former boss at MyTravel and Worldpay, Mr Jansen started his profession at Procter & Gamble, the American client items big and one of many world’s largest spenders on promoting.

WPP signalled final 12 months that it had begun succession planning to discover a substitute for Roberto Quarta, its chairman since 2015.

The most seismic interval of his tenure got here in 2018, when the corporate’s figurehead for 3 many years, Sir Martin Sorrell, was compelled out of the corporate.

Sir Martin has since listed a digitally targeted rival to the key promoting holding corporations known as S4 Capital, which has additionally endured a troublesome time amid deteriorating sentiment in direction of know-how shares.

He was changed at WPP by long-standing colleague Mark Read, who stays its chief government.

Insiders stated that WPP was anticipated to choose a md from exterior the ranks of its current board members, who embody the previous Burberry chief Angela Ahrendts and Tom Ilube, the chair of the Rugby Football Union.

WPP, which has a market worth of simply over £8bn, and Mr Jansen each declined to remark.