Patricia Ithau is the Regional Director of the Stanford Graduate School of Business East Africa’s Seed Transformation Programme. She manages and ensures the execution of programmes to excellence, and selects and evaluates programme participants. Ithau is the former Managing Director of L’Oreal East Africa, a position she left in 2014 after serving for three years. During her tenure, she is credited for the growth of Nice & Lovely sales that drove the organisation to profitability. She also synchronised operations between L’Oréal and Inter-consumer Products that was crucial after L’Oréal acquired the latter. In January 2016, Ithau was appointed a non-executive Director of Barclays Bank of Kenya.

She served as marketing director of East Africa Breweries Ltd (EABL) in Kenya between 2005 and 2008, before she was promoted to the position of managing director of EABL in Uganda. She was the managing director EABL International from 2009 to 2011 where she oversaw the expansion of EABL to the South Sudan market. She was also the Head of Culinary Innovation Centre, Unilever South Africa. Ithau has also served on different boards. She was chairperson of the Nairobi Women’s Hospital Board from 2009 to 2012. She sits on the Advisory Board of Strathmore University and has also been a board member of the Kenya Tourism Board and the Brand Kenya Board. Ithau is a non-executive board member of various organisations such as Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), whose objective is to grow prosperity in the East African region through trade and improved competitiveness.

She is also a member of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) She has been the Consulting Country Director of Invest in Africa (IIA) since February 2016, an organisation that aims to create jobs and improve the business environment for both investors and local small and medium enterprises. It also aims to increase the linkages between large international and domestic companies and smaller local business, and increase access to skills, markets and finance. Ithau holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Nairobi and an MBA from the United States International University.