The world over, a majority of the most successful companies have one thing in common — the ability to identify top talent and nurture it. In Kenya, the Symbion Consulting Group (SCG), is the epitome of talent identification and nurturing. Titus Kipsang, SCG Group Chairman, knows this too well. This is because he is a product of the firm’s ability to identify, bring on board, train and nurture rare talent. “I started working for Symbion while still in university,” he says.
For Titus, who grew up in the remote Bartabwa village in Baringo County and went to Bartabwa Primary School in the 1980s, his remarkable journey in the architectural field started when he joined Moi High School Kabarak for his secondary education. This was during the period when the school was going through an infrastructure transformation. Kipsang saw all manner of buildings being built from the entire school tuition and administration block to state-of-the-art laboratories and auditoriums.
“We were daily interacting with buildings coming up, including the beautiful Kabarak Chapel. It was perhaps this building that aroused the greatest interest in me to pursue architecture,” he reminiscences. By the time he was completing form four, Titus was already certain he wanted to pursue architecture as a profession, a dream that came true when he joined the University of Nairobi College of Architecture and Engineering in 1991 to pursue a degree in Bachelor of Architecture. He graduated in 1998.
Notably, Kipsang was in university at a very turbulent time. The country was going through political upheavals and the University of Nairobi was literally a battleground. Numerous strikes meant prolonged durations out of university. “It was a long stay at the university,” he states.
Luckily for him, a visit by Symbion partner Jon Cavanagh to the College of Architecture to mentor students would mark the beginning of an exciting journey with one of the most successful architectural practices in Kenya. During the event, Cavanagh’s eye for top talent recognized Kipsang and Pius Muli, another partner at Symbion and they were both given an opportunity to work at the firm while pursuing their education. It was thus natural that the two would join Symbion upon graduation.
“My first job was with Symbion which I got the week after completing my studies. I never got to tarmac like most of my college mates,” avers Kipsang, who is married to Christine Kipsang, a lawyer practicing in Mombasa. The couple has two children aged 23 and 17.
Symbion gave Kipsang the platform to prove his abilities. But more importantly, it was a practice that was well grounded in rewarding hard work. It was therefore not surprising when Titus rose through the ranks to become partner and was tasked with setting up the Mombasa unit before eventually rising to become the group chairman.
For over two decades, Kipsang who is a devoted Christian, has been privileged to handle many different projects of various varying magnitudes. While they range from master planning to huge developments, the Nyali Baptist Church development project remains the one with the most unique composition. From the project, Kipsang drew serious life lessons beyond architecture. This is based on the fact that he is a deacon at the church where he has been spending considerable time doing ministry work.
A man who loves to spend time with his family and is not disappointed that none of his children has any interest in architecture, Kipsang is proud to have witnessed the evolution of architecture from the drawing board to computers to full digitization. Besides, digital monitoring of projects on site has also grown with drone surveys being a common phenomenon. Moreover, digitally printed buildings are beginning to make their presence in the construction world.
Though these changes are a sign of growth of the profession, the level of university training seems to be deteriorating going by the caliber of graduates coming out of these institutions. It is for this reason that Symbion has an elaborate two-year training program for its crop of new architects. “We take them through robust training because we want them to meet our standards,” explains Kipsang.
This, in fact, is a passion that he has extended beyond the office. With several of his relatives studying architecture and at least six children of his close friends and neighbours in Nyali currently pursuing one degree or another in architecture, Kipsang is actively involved in mentoring the young generation.
Away from the office and the architecture world, Kipsang is a dairy and tea farmer. While architecture has given his professional satisfaction, farming is the ‘soft’ hobby that enables him to maintain connection with his traditional roots. “In our community we love cows and farming,” he says, adding that despite his being ‘telephone’ farming, it is something that is very close to his heart and one that he will take fulltime the day he walks away from architectural practice.
