Cracks in the Glass Ceiling

Ad giant WPP signals a future shaped by women leaders, cultural fluency, and Al mastery

- By Reema Bhaduri

IF ONE WERE to distill the current mood at WPP into a single phrase, it might well be this—the glass ceiling has cracks, and the cracks are increasingly women.

Enter Devika Bulchandani, whose trajectory from Mumbai to Manhattan reads like a masterclass in strategic patience. Twenty-six years at McCann, then a seamless leap to Ogilvy's global throne, and now WPP's Chief Operating Officer. It's the sort of career arc that represents a rare breed of Indian executives who've cracked the code of global leadership without losing their strategic edge.