Kenya Airways picks COO Mbuvi Ngunze as new CEO

A plane on the fleet of Kenya Air

Kenya Airways has ended its search for a new chief executive, naming Chief Operating Officer Mbuvi Ngunze to replace Titus Naikuni. The long-serving Group Managing Director and CEO retires at the end of November this year after 11 years at the helm of the national carrier.
Mr Naikuni joined KQ in February 2003 and was expected to retire last year. However, KQ’s board asked him to stay for one more year to steer the company through a turbulent period.
The board says it engaged the services of US-based international executive search firm Spencer Stuart Limited to help identify a suitable successor for Mr Naikuni. Plans to hire a new COO are now underway.
Mr Ngunze has served as COO since September 2011. He joined the airline from cement-maker Lafarge, with whom he spent a decade in various roles.
These include heading the Finance department at Bamburi Cement, managing Hima Cement Uganda and Mbeya Cement Tanzania, and heading audit and internal communication at the group’s headquarters in Paris. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (accounting option) from the University of Nairobi.
He is a Chartered Accountant (England and Wales) and is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Management Development Programme.
The Naikuni era of KQ’s history was marked by aggressive expansion. The airline now operates on more than 60 routes from the 25 that it plied when he joined the company in 2003.
However, the company has also suffered some major setbacks including two plane crashes, the first in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in 2004 and another in Doula, Cameroon in 2007.
KQ sank into loss-making territory in 2012 after a fuel hedging bet gone wrong, but swung back to profitability the year after. Efforts to cut costs in 2012 by retrenching workers saw the airline entangled in a precedent-setting court battle.