WPP Scangroup has announced that the Board of Directors has suspended the employment of the CEO Mr. Bharat Thakrar and the CFO Mr. Satyabrata Das. The suspension comes to allow for investigation for allegations of gross misconduct and possible offences in their capacities as senior executives and employees of the company.
The Group has delegated authority in the interim to Chief Operating Officer (COO) Mr. Alec Graham. This is meant to ensure the continued management of the company with the support of the board and senior executives of the company’s subsidiaries. Alec Graham has over 25 years experience in advertising and communications working with various companies in the WPP Group. In due course the board will consider the appointment of an interim CFO for the company.
Bharat Thakrar is the founder of WPP Scangroup and was serving as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Executive Director. He is also a member of Advertising Standards Board of Kenya and is on the board of 19 other companies. Thakrar was previously the Chairman for Advertising Practitioners Association.
Satyabrata Das was serving as the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) at WPP Scangroup. Satya is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK. After working for 8 years in the Commercial function in the manufacturing sector, he moved into Advertising and Media with Publicis Groupe Media as Finance Controller for India in 2005 prior to joining WPP Scangroup in 2009.
WPP Scangroup is a subsidiary of WPP and is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. It is the largest marketing and communication group operating a multi-agency model across multiple agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The agencies it operates include Ogilvy Africa, SCANAD and JWT, GroupM, Mediacom Africa, Mindshare, H+K Strategies, and Squad Digital. The firm employs over 1,200 people in different parts of the country and has presence in 25 countries in Africa including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi and Cameroon among others.