Directorate Change

WPP Group PLC
14 March 2005


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                             14 March 2005


                            WPP GROUP PLC ("WPP")

                    WPP appoints eminent Saudi businesswoman
                    Lubna Olayan as non-executive director


WPP announces the appointment of leading Saudi businesswoman, Lubna S. Olayan, a
principal of The Olayan Group and CEO of Olayan Financing Company, as
non-executive director.  She joins the Board of WPP with immediate effect.

Ms Olayan is a distinguished business figure in the Arab world and beyond.  As
CEO of Riyadh-based Olayan Financing Company, she is responsible for The Olayan
Group's operating businesses and investments in Saudi Arabia and the Middle
East.  These include some 40 companies engaged in product distribution,
manufacturing, and services, often in partnership with leading multinationals.
Olayan Financing is a major investor in the Saudi economy, and it is
consistently ranked in the top echelon of Saudi and Gulf companies.
Internationally, The Olayan Group is a leading private investor with emphasis on
public and private equities, particularly in Europe and the US, and on fixed
income securities.


Ms Olayan is a member of the Board of Directors of Olayan Investments Company
Establishment, the Group's parent entity.  She also holds other executive
positions and board memberships in several Group-related entities.

In December 2004, Ms Olayan was elected to the Board of Saudi Hollandi Bank,
becoming the first woman to join the board of a Saudi listed company.  She
served on the Board of Chelsfield, the UK property developer, from 1996 to 2004.
She is a member of INSEAD's International Council and the World Links Advisory
Council, World Bank.  She is active in the World Economic Forum, serving on its
Arab Business Council and Women Leadership Initiative and as co-chair of the
Forum's January 2005 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.  She is also a
trustee of the Arab Thought Foundation.  Named by Fortune magazine as one of the
50 Most Powerful Women: International Power 50, Ms Olayan is the recipient of
numerous business achievement awards and is an outspoken advocate of progressive
business practices in the Middle East.

Prior to joining The Olayan Group - founded in 1947 by her father, Suliman S.
Olayan - she  worked for Morgan Guaranty in New York after an American
education, obtaining a BSc in agriculture from Cornell University and an MBA
from Indiana University.


For further information please contact:


Feona McEwan, WPP                  44-20 7408 2204
www.wpp.com


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange