Mavis Kitcher appointed GCGL Director, News

The Board of Directors of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) has appointed Mrs. Mavis Kitcher as the Director, News of the company.

She replaces Mr. Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, who retired in July 2018.

Mrs. Kitcher, the first female to occupy the position, comes to the job with vast experience in journalism, having practised for more than 35 years.

She has built her entire career at the GCGL, where she started as a reporter and became the Women’s Editor of the Daily Graphic, during which time she wrote a weekly column on issues affecting women in the country.

Career progression

Mrs. Kitcher was appointed the Editorial Administrator in 1998, which made her the administrative head of the News Department, liaising with the Human Resource Department, organising training programmes and recruiting journalists, proofreaders and other staff for the department.

During her tenure, she introduced written examinations as a requirement for recruiting reporters and proofreaders to ensure that those employed had the needed skills for their assigned tasks.

Editor, Junior Graphic

Mrs. Kitcher was, thereafter, appointed the first Editor of the Junior Graphic as a fully-fledged newspaper, a position she held from 2001 until her new appointment, making her the most senior and longest-serving editor in the company currently.

As Editor, she has mentored reporters to become key writers working on the various newspapers of the GCGL.

Additionally, she has mentored a number of readers of the Junior Graphic through the paper’s fan clubs across the various regions to generate interest in reading, writing and journalism.

Some of these students have trained to become professional journalists and won awards from the Ghana Journalists Association.

Background

Mrs. Kitcher holds a master’s degree and a graduate diploma in Communication Studies from the School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana.

She also holds an Executive Masters in Business Administration (EMBA) in Human Resource Management from the University of Ghana Business School.

Her training in business enabled her to, over the years, source for funding from international donor agencies such as UNICEF, the UNFPA/PATH, the African Youth Alliance (AYA), Plan Ghana, among others, to plan and execute various projects for the company.

Mrs. Kitcher is also a graduate of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, a member of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and a former Vice-Chairperson of the Graphic Chapter of the GJA.

She is currently the Interim President of the Association of Women In the Media (ASWIM) and former Chairperson of the Graphic Chapter of ASWIM.

She is married with three children.