Senior Changes for Kantar in Africa and the UK

Kantar's longtime Africa Insight MD Susannah Patton is moving to lead the Alcohol & Tobacco Industry group in the UK. She is replaced as Chief Commercial Officer for West, East & Central Africa (WECA) by Maria da Serra, and as Head of Kantar Africa Insight by Astrid Ricketts.

Patton has spent more than eighteen years focusing on the group's WECA region. She spent six years at UK agency Illuminas, latterly as AD, before joining TNS RMS UK Ltd in 2008 as MD, and has held the African roles since January 2011, helping to accelerate growth and deepen client impact across the region.

Ricketts is returning to the team in which she joined Kantar seventeen years ago, and where she helped Patton build Kantar Africa Insight. Since then she has held a range of senior leadership positions, most recently as Sustainable Transformation Practice Lead for the Middle East, Africa & Türkiye. Earlier in her career she spent eight years in the same group, working at UK agencies DVL Smith and Incepta / Illuminas.

da Serra is a specialist in consumer, innovation and product research, with more than twenty years' experience working with FMCG businesses, alongside broad cross-sector strategic consultancy. This includes five years at MMR Worldwide and eleven at Unilever. She joined Kantar in 2022 and most recently served as a Senior Client Partner and Commercial Growth Director.

Both the new African promotees report to Daniel Oseman, Managing Director, WECA, who comments said: 'Please join me in congratulating Susannah on her new role in the UK, and Astrid and Maria on their well-deserved appointments. As brands rethink how intelligence drives growth in an AI-accelerated landscape, I'm confident Astrid and Maria will help our clients turn deeper intelligence into sharper decisions and real commercial impact across the region.'

Group home page: www.kantar.com .

Pictured L to R: Patton - Ricketts - da Serra