africapractice restructures

From a single office employing five people seven years ago, africapractice has grown to eight offices in seven countries employing 80 staff. Kim Polley, director of africapractice Southern Africa, forecasts that the company will employ a further 120 people by March 2013.

Polley says, 'We have made over 20 new hires across the group so far this year and the pace is picking up every quarter. We predicted that 2011 would be a good year, but the first half has been even better than we forecasted. We are gearing up for even more growth as we prepare to close out a phenomenal year.'

'Our ambitions are not measured by the size of our payroll or the length of our client list, Polley noted. 'We measure our success by the value our clients attach to our advice, the results we deliver for them, the influence we have on public policy and the contributions we make to furthering the development of the countries in which we operate. We want to win - and winning means three things to us: ensuring our clients succeed, rewarding our staff and shareholders, and last but not least, making a significant contribution to improving the lives and livelihoods of the communities and countries in which we live and work.'

Appointments

• Kadaria Ahmed has joined as an associate director in the Nigerian office. Based in Lagos she is leading corporate communications and public affairs assignments for private sector clients in Nigeria. Prior to joining africapractice, Kadaria was the founding managing editor and editor of 234Next, an investigative newspaper in Nigeria. She previously spent eight years working at the BBC and is one of Nigeria's foremost media practitioners.

• Anna Riley, who was a senior consultant with africapractice since January 2011, has relocated to Dar-es-Salaam to assume the role of general manager. She is directing africapractice's support for the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), an agricultural project in Africa.

• Sanyu Mugambwa joins africapractice as a senior consultant after six years in the Australian foreign service. She completed postings as second secretary in Nairobi and most recently as peacebuilding adviser in Sierra Leone, supporting Australian participation on the UN's Peacebuilding Commission. Between postings, she served as an adviser on trade and development issues, representing the Australian government at WIPO and WTO meetings.

• Jonas Paurell joins as a senior consultant to drive the Growth & Opportunity practice. Paurell is a business intelligence, opportunity and risk consultant who has been analysing the impact of regulations, policies, security issues and political stability on public and private equity in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe for several years. He started his career as lawyer working for the United Nations in Southern and East Africa.

• Maryanne Maina recently joined africapractice as a senior consultant in the Nairobi office. Maryanne brings years of corporate communications experience garnered from consultancy roles in Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, where she managed communications for a financial sector client across nine markets in Africa. Maina was previously a senior business journalist and foreign news editor for Avusa Media Group in South Africa.

• Lucas Chandellier who is a consultant based in Conakry, has relocated from France to support the firm's expanding portfolio of work in Guinea - a nation which successfully transitioned from military rule to democracy earlier this year. He is project managing a private sector sponsorships in Guinea.

Of the appointments, Polley says, 'The hires we have made reflect the strengths of our company. Each individual is passionate about contributing to socio-economic development in Africa. They each have strong analytical minds and impeccable communication skills; and they have all gained experience leading teams of people in government and industry, working throughout Africa and internationally.