Monitor gets new MD, board chairperson

Kagugube replaces Dr Martin Aliker, who has been chairman for more than 10 years, while Asiimwe takes over from Dr Gitahi Githinji, who asked to retire.

Dr Aliker became Monitor board chairman in 2000 when the Monitor merged with Nation Media Group, the leading regional media conglomerate.

Announcing and introducing the new chairman to the staff yesterday [11 November 2011], the NMG chief executive officer, Linus Gitahi, said Dr Kagugube is a fitting choice for the Monitor considering his commanding experience in the business world having been in both public and private sectors.

Also the president of the East African School of Tax, Dr Kagugube is the executive director Centenary Rural Development Bank. The group CEO said the new chairman would also oversee the operations of NTV Uganda.

Meanwhile, Gitahi also announced that the current managing director, Dr Githinji, who has also been a member of the Monitor board, will be leaving the company this year. Dr Githinji will be moving to focus on his role as regional director of Africa for a US-based charity.

Commenting on Dr Githinji's tenure, the group CEO commended him for his role in in taking the Monitor to a strong competitive position through the investment in a new press, a new design of the newspaper as well as entrenching a culture of entrepreneurship and teamwork.

"Dr Githinji asked to retire from the business, and he is leaving on his own request to focus on other responsibilities," Mr Gitahi said.

He welcomed Asiimwe as a decent replacement to Dr Githinji. Asiimwe, who takes over in January, has been the general manager, Commercial, at MPL, a position he took after working with NMG Nairobi as a senior commercial manager.

The new MD, who was Monitor Publications advertising manager before he was transferred to Nairobi in 2009, after helping grow Monitor's market share, has attended several international workshops on how to commercialise the media.

As a commercial manager for Nation Media Group based in Nairobi, Asiimwe, in close to three years, grew the group's advertising revenues in its multiple platforms substantially.

Interacting with staff yesterday, Dr Kagugube asked for professionalism and promised that the business would grow to a revenue of Shs40b and deliver profits in excess of Shs.7b even before 2015, the year the current board had set.

"Monitor has no business being number two in the market because we have all the attributes to be the best and we shall be," Dr Kagugube said.

He pledged to uphold the Monitor's value of independence; not yielding to anybody's bidding, be it government or the opposition.

Source: allAfrica.com