KENYA AIRWAYS’ CHANGES GUARD AS MBUVI NGUNZE TAKES OVER CEO POSITION
(Posted 01st November 2014)
Effective today, 01st November 2014, has Mr. Mbuvi Ngunze officially assumed his new position as Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director of Kenya Airways, following the retirement of Dr. Titus Naikuni.
Mbuvi had joined the airline in September 2011 as Chief Operating Officer and served in that capacity until yesterday.
After attaining a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from the University of Nairobi he went on to graduate from the Harvard Business School before joining Price Waterhouse in 1990.
In 1998 Mbuvi joined Bamburi Cement, a Lafarge subsidiary, as Finance Manager before rising to the position of Director of Finance a year later. Between 2002 and 2006 he served as CEO of Hima Cement in Western Uganda, before a stint at the Lafarge headoffice in Paris. He returned to East Africa for Lafarge to head their Tanzania operation at Mbeya Cement in 2009, before joining Kenya as COO in 2011.
(Mbuvi Ngunze on the left seen in a jovial mood with his predecessor Dr. Titus Naikuni)
His appointment as CEO at Kenya Airways was by many close observers of the Kenyan aviation industry seen as an endorsement of his work at KQ and the desire of the Board of Directors for an in-house succession by someone very closely involved in the day to day running of the company’s affairs and as someone able to carry the torch and continue implementing Kenya Airways’ ambitious plans as outlined under their strategic ‘Plan Mawingu’ which projects to more than double the fleet and destinations by 2021.
Best wishes too Mbuvi on his starting day as CEO and good fortunes in the days, months and years ahead.
Meanwhile it is a fond farewell for Titus who had been a familiar sight at key company events and who had over the years become both a friend as well as a competent source of information on all matters concerning aviation. All the best to him in his new role as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rift Valley Railways after serving for 11 ½ years at the helm of Kenya Airways, during which time the company had undergone a dramatic change from being just another national airline into the top three in Africa.
