Ms Patricia Ithau has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of WPP Scangroup Plc, effective Monday, March 14, 2022.
In a statement on Thursday, the public relations and advertising company termed Patricia Ithau as a highly accomplished business and marketing leader who brings more than 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles overseeing the expansion of major consumer brands in Eastern Africa.
Previously, she has worked for companies such as Unilever, Diageo/East African Breweries Ltd and L’Oréal. She holds a number of board positions at organisations such as ABSA Bank Kenya PLC, TradeMark East Africa Ltd, Jambojet Ltd, and British Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is a Trustee on the boards of Vodafone Foundation UK and M-Pesa Foundation and was previously on the board of WPP Scangroup PLC as non-executive director from 2017 to 2020.
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“Patricia is passionate about creating opportunities that improve people’s lives and is currently the Regional Director at the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Development Economies – Seed, a Stanford Graduate School of Business initiative that aims to build a network of globally-engaged leaders from Silicon Valley to sub-Saharan Africa and tackle global poverty by supporting the scale-up of small and medium-sized businesses in developing economies,” said Mr Richard Omwela, the chairman of Sangroup.
In 2020, Ms Ithau was awarded a Head of State Commendation (HSC) – Civilian Division, for her work in supporting enterprise development in the country.
She holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the United States International University – Africa, and a B Com from the University of Nairobi. She also completed an Advanced Management Program at Strathmore Business School/IESE Business School, Barcelona, a General Management Program at INSEAD – CEDEP, and a Certificate Program in Scenario Planning at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
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She takes the place of Bharat Thakrar, who resigned in March 2021 after being suspended for what the board described as allegations of “gross misconduct”. Thakrar was suspended alongside chief finance officer Satyabrata Das.
Thakrar started Scanad as a one-man agency in 1982, before growing to Scangroup and getting listed at the NSE in 2006.
Thakrar later ceded a controlling stake to WPP Group, a British advertising firm, with the company changing its name to WPP Scangroup. It has a physical presence in 25 African countries.
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WPP has a 52 percent stake of the issued share capital through its subsidiaries, Cavendish Square Holding BV and Russell Square Holding.
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