KENYA AIRWAYS’S BRANDING CHAMPION LEAVES THE AIRLINE TO TAKE UP A NEW CHALLENGE
(Posted 18th February 2017)
Chris Diaz, Director of Marketing at Kenya Airways, has overnight confirmed that he will be leaving the airline in a month to take up a new position details of which can be found here when a formal announcement is being made next week.
Chris has served ‘The Pride of Africa‘ with distinction over a number of years and remained one of the few senior executives commanding both national and international respect for his work, at times done under challenging circumstances.
Chris, during his 5 years at Kenya Airways – he joined at the time from Bidco – had put Kenya Airways on the map in terms of national, regional, continental and global visibility and was for that performance also honoured with his inclusion in the global top 100 Marketing Hall of Fame.
During his reign as Marketing Director did Kenya Airways collect four consecutive ‘Best Business Class in Africa‘ trophies at the World Travel Awards between 2013 to 2016 plus the 2016 Award for ‘Best Airline in Africa‘.
As a Director of Brand Kenya his global connections also came in handy to promote the country over and above the national airline.
Mbuvi Ngunze, the Kenya Airways CEO – who is also leaving over the next couple of months – paid tribute to Chris and then used the opportunity to announce a restructuring of Chris’ portfolio: ‘As a result of Chris’ upcoming move, I decided to reorganise Marketing in two parts, Corporate Communication, CSR, Events and sponsorship will be combined with Government and Industry Affairs which is currently placed in the Commercial Department, and will be led by a Head of External Affairs, Regulatory and Communication, reporting to me‘.
Corporate branding, marketing and advertising will move into the reporting line of Commercial Director Vincent Coste.
From this correspondent it is a fond farewell to Chris who proved an invaluable source of information over the years and all the very best for his future endeavours and challenges in his new position, which he himself described as a ‘big new job‘.
https://atcnews.org/2016/11/28/chris-diaz-puts-kenyan-marketing-on-the-global-map/
