Mesfin Tasew Bekele named new CEO of Ethiopian Airlines

Reuters | Ethiopian Airlines on Thursday named Chief Operating Officer Mesfin Tasew Bekele to succeed CEO Tewolde Gebremariam who is retiring early to focus on his medical treatment.

Tewolde Gebremariam, who transformed the airline into Africa’s biggest carrier, said on Wednesday he had resigned to focus on his medical treatment.

In an internal memo to employees seen by Reuters he said he had had health issues for almost a year and had been working remotely for the past 5 months and was not able to return to the head office any time soon.

“I am retiring early due to health issues,” he told Reuters in a text message, echoing the language in the memo which said he would focus on his treatment.

In his 11 years at the helm, Tewolde grew the carrier from just 33 planes into a fleet of 130 planes operating on local and international routes, and from 3 million passengers to 12 million passengers, pre-COVID, the airline said in a statement.

Tewolde led the airline for over a decade with remarkable success reflected in its exceptional performance in all parameters including but not limited to exponential growth from US$1 billion annual turn-over to US$4.5 billion,” the state-owned carrier said.

Mesfin has 38 years of experience in airline management and operations in the areas of aircraft maintenance and engineering, procurement, information technology, flight operations, capability development, capacity building, development of corporate strategies, airline operation management, and corporate leadership. He earned a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Open University in the UK, an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering specializing in Communications Engineering from Addis Ababa University, and a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Addis Ababa University.

The Board Chairman of the airline, Girma Wake said, “I would like to congratulate Mr. Mesfin on his new appointment and I am fully confident about his capabilities. We believe that Mesfin will lead the airline to even greater success, keeping it on the right track that will see it grow through many generations to come. I urge the 17,000 employees of Ethiopian and the board members to stand with the new Group CEO to keep the airline fly high. We are also thankful for the remarkable contributions of the former Group CEO.”