Airtel appoints new regional boss

Airtel Africa has announced the appointment of Ian Ferrao as regional director of its East Africa business.

The telco said in a statement that Ferrao has more than 12 years of experience in senior management in the industry across the continent.

Prior to joining Airtel Africa, he was the chief executive of Vodacom Tanzania, the CEO of Vodacom Lesotho as well as at chief commercial officer at Vodacom Business Africa.

Airtel Africa CEO Raghunath Mandava said Ferrao will oversee operations Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda. He brings a wealth of relevant telecommunications and mobile money experience, and will be part of the Africa Executive Committee based in Nairobi and will focus on driving growth across voice, data and mobile money in East Africa.

Africa Star Railway Operation Company, a firm that is majority-owned by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), has appointed Kenya Railways head of freight operations Sammy Gachuhi, to be the deputy general manager.

Mr Gachuhi is a former Rift Valley Railways (RVR) external affairs and concession manager. Prior to the position, he was the head of freight operations department at KRC since March 2018. He was in charge of a team tasked with reviving the Standard Gauge Rail freight business since January.

He also worked with Kenya Power as a customer service officer in charge of billing for domestic customers. Mr Gachuhi has been appointed alongside Diana Kimani who takes over as the passenger deputy manager and David Muga who takes over as the freight marketing manager.

Mr Evans Kihara has been appointed the acting Technical Director at Kenya Airways. Mr Kihara is an experienced maintenance and engineering leader with a demonstrated practical history of driving change in the aviation industry.  

He is skilled in operations management, aircraft maintenance, airworthiness, contract negotiations and maintenance cost optimisation. 

 Mr Kihara has worked at Kenya Airways for 18 years and risen through the ranks from an apprentice.    

An alumnus of the Technical University of Kenya, Kihara studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the university and has attended numerous training programmes in aviation technology and safety.