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

Sky News has learnt that Mr Jansen, who’s to step down from the telecoms firm within the spring, is considered one of a variety of potential candidates to have been sounded out in current weeks concerning the publish.

City sources mentioned on Monday that WPP’s search was not but at a complicated stage and there was no certainty that Mr Jansen or WPP would determine 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 prospects.

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 greatest spenders on promoting.

WPP signalled final yr that it had begun succession planning to discover a alternative 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 a long time, Sir Martin Sorrell, was pressured out of the corporate.

Sir Martin has since listed a digitally centered rival to the main promoting holding corporations referred to as S4 Capital, which has additionally endured a troublesome time amid deteriorating sentiment in the direction of expertise shares.

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

Insiders mentioned that WPP was anticipated to choose a md from exterior the ranks of its present 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.