WPP Scangroup Plc has announced the appointment of Akua Brayie Owusu-Nartey as the new Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and CEO of Ogilvy Africa, effective November 17, 2025.
She will also join the company’s board as an Executive Director.
The significant leadership change underscores WPP Scangroup’s commitment to strengthening its strategic direction and operational excellence across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ms. Owusu-Nartey brings over 18 years of experience in integrated communications, brand transformation, and business growth across Africa.
She is recognized for her ability to revitalise underperforming businesses and manage large cross-functional teams.
Her leadership spans key African markets, including Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia. Notably, she led the integration of Ogilvy Ghana and Scanad Ghana in 2019, creating a formidable creative hub in West Africa.
Prior to this appointment, Ms. Owusu-Nartey served as the Chief Client Officer and Head of Connected Culture at Ogilvy Africa.
In this dual role, she was responsible for driving operational excellence for top clients across Sub-Saharan Africa and fostering a unified organisational culture.
She also served as the acting Managing Director of Scanad Kenya and held leadership positions at Ogilvy Ghana
Academic background
Ms. Owusu-Nartey holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from Central University College in Ghana and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Hult International Business School in the UK, where she won the Hult Global Citizen Award 2022-2023.
The Board of Directors expressed strong confidence in Ms. Owusu-Nartey’s appointment, highlighting her extensive leadership and industry experience.
They believe her strategic vision will significantly benefit WPP Scangroup as it continues to strengthen its position in the African market.
With her appointment, WPP Scangroup aims to enhance its capabilities in integrated marketing communications, public relations, digital initiatives, and media buying across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ms. Owusu-Nartey’s leadership is expected to drive innovation and operational excellence, reinforcing the company’s commitment to delivering impactful solutions for its clients.
Letters to My Younger Self: Robinah Siima — “Success Is Quieter, But Richer”This leadership change aligns with WPP Scangroup’s strategy to reinforce its capabilities in key markets worldwide for accelerated growth, as evidenced by the 2019 integration of Ogilvy Ghana and Scanad Ghana.
The combined entity provided the West Africa sub-region with a formidable creative hub delivering the best advertising, digital, public relations, and media buying capabilities in a constantly evolving industry.
Leadership shake-up
The leadership shake-up comes at a time of turbulence for Scangroup, which recently posted a KSh507.6 million net loss for the financial year ended December 31, 2024, reversing a KSh133.3 million profit recorded in 2023.
The firm also suffered from client attrition and divestiture of underperforming subsidiaries, including the loss of Airtel Africa as a key account, which represented nearly 20% of Scangroup’s 2024 annual sales.
Airtel shifted its regional business to Publicis Groupe Africa through The Partnership Africa, a new agency founded in 2023 by former Scangroup executives, which remains a blow that underscored the company’s struggle to retain legacy clients amid intensifying competition.
Ms. Owusu-Nartey’s appointment closes the chapter of Patricia Ithau, who took the helm in March 2022 following the scandal-ridden exit of Bharat Thakrar, Scangroup’s founding CEO.
Thakrar resigned in 2021 amid allegations of misconduct, a saga that dented the group’s reputation and triggered internal restructuring and governance reforms.
Ithau, a seasoned corporate leader with an illustrious background at East African Breweries, Unilever, and L’Oréal, was welcomed as a reformist capable of restoring investor confidence.
A former Miss Kenya turned boardroom strategist, she sought to stabilize operations through cost restructuring, digital transformation (via OgilvyOne and GroupM), and cultural reform across the organization.
However, her tenure coincided with persistent revenue contraction, margin pressures, and shareholder frustration.
On July 15, 2025, the company announced her contract’s end in what it described as a “controlled exit.”
Ithau was to assist in a leadership handover while Chief Operating Officer Miriam Kaggwa and Ogilvy Africa CEO Vikas Mehta temporarily oversaw operations.
Despite the board’s courteous tone, industry insiders viewed her departure as a reflection of deep-seated operational and structural challenges from client losses to internal fragmentation and an unsettled workforce.
