KENYA AIRWAYS CEO THROWS IN THE TOWEL AFTER FAILED RESCUE MISSION
(Posted 24th May 2019)
(It is YOUR fault seems Sebastian Mikosz gesture to suggest)
Information was confirmed earlier this afternoon that Sebastian Mikosz will leave Kenya Airways well before the end of his term of office.
This confirms earlier reports by ATCNews that he was either not going to be offered a contract extension or would quit himself when it became evident that the turnaround plan he had submitted to the airline’s board was not going to be successful. Divisions on the board, in particular with the bank representatives, may have added to his woes after his fallout with Chairman Michael Joseph, himself now increasingly under the spotlight.
As ATCNews, relying on top sources, had suggested on 15th of April did matters clearly come to a head after the airline’s Annual General Meeting, when another whopping loss was reported, leaving the airline for all intent and purpose technically broke.
Share prices too fell to a new low as a result very recently, further aggravating the relationship with bank representatives on the board, who themselves will have to justify to their own shareholders in upcoming AGM’s why they had signed on to a deal with leaves their owners now counting their losses.
Mikosz earned notoriety with many Kenyans, the airline’s staff and in particular the staff and management of the Kenya Airports Authority when he relentlessly advocated for a takeover of KAA to give the airline a supposed business advantage over their international rivals – but also local rivals of course – by grabbing the KAA cash purse and then waiving pending invoices of KAA to Kenya Airways to the tune of over 5 billion Kenya Shillings.
With Mikosz financial turnaround plan in tatters after another year of losses, the KAA takeover for all intent and purpose failed and the growing rift between him and his chairman over future strategy, was he then left standing in the proverbial rain and probably, for his own sake, saw it best to tender his resignation now than serving out his term of office.
What will happen to the team of expatriates he recruited remains a question to be answered in the future but it is unlikely that all of them will continue at KQ once their main benefactor has left the airline.
Mikosz departure in December gives the Board time to conclude the search for a new CEO, which according to one source had already been started under the cover of strict confidentiality.
Links to related articles are shown below for ease of access:
https://atcnews.org/2019/03/17/kenyaairways-ceo-faces-up-to-the-bitter-truth/
https://atcnews.org/2019/03/19/growing-rift-between-chairman-and-ceo-at-kenya-airways/
https://atcnews.org/2019/04/11/kenya-airport-authority-shoots-down-kenya-airways-merger-proposal-in-flames/
https://atcnews.org/2019/04/15/kenya-airways-ceo-lashing-out-at-all-and-sundry/
