Kenya Airways officially announced new Board Chair

At a meeting held today, it was announced by Kenya Airways that Mr. Michael Joseph is now officially the new Board Chairman for the airline.

At a meeting held today, it was announced by Kenya Airways that Mr. Michael Joseph is now officially the new Board Chairman for the airline.

He takes over with immediate effect to replace Amb. Dennis Awori who resigned with effect from October 26, 2016 to pursue other interests.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Kenya Airways and staff, CEO Mr. Mbuvi Ngunze took this opportunity to thank Amb. Awori for his able leadership and dedication to the airline at a very difficult time.


Under his leadership, the board and management have put in place Operation Pride, a turnaround program that includes measures that in the long term will enable the airline to strengthen its balance sheet and resume shareholder returns. The initiatives put in place under Operation Pride have started to bear fruit with a significant improvement in the financial performance of the company compared to a similar period last year.

Michael Joseph has extensive international corporate experience and is currently employed by Vodafone Group Services Limited as the Director of Mobile Money and is responsible for leading the strategic growth and development of successful M-Pesa proposition across the Vodafone footprint. Michael also serves as a non-executive Director on the Boards of Vodacom Group South Africa, Vodacom Tanzania, Vodacom Mozambique, Vodacom DRC, and Safaricom Limited. He was one of the first World Bank Fellows, appointed in March 2011 to advise governments, regulators, and other institutions on mobile money and other ICT initiatives.



Previously, Michael was the founding CEO of Safaricom Limited, steering the company from a subscriber base of less than 18,000 in 2000 to over 17 million subscribers at his retirement in November 2010, making it the most successful company in East Africa. This phenomenal growth straddling nearly a decade was notable for the launch of many innovative products and services, and he was behind the launch of the highly-successful launch and phenomenal growth of M-Pesa and its related services. He has extensive international experience in company start-ups, and the implementation and operation of large wireless and wire-line networks. Michael joined the Kenya Airways Board as a Director on September 29, 2016 after he was elected at the Annual General Meeting of the company.

Said Mr. Mbuvi Ngunze, Group Managing Director and CEO of Kenya Airways, when broke the news a few moments ago:
โ€œOn behalf of the Board of Directors of Kenya Airways and staff, I wish to take this opportunity to offer Mr. Michael Joseph our most sincere congratulations on this appointment and confirm our full support to him as he takes over the Chairmanship of the Board of Kenya Airways. We wish him every success as he assumes his new responsibilities. We have no doubt that under his leadership and guidance, with the support of management, staff, and the board, the airline will steer to greater heights.โ€

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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