Former Uganda Airlines chief executive Cornwell Muleya tapped to head Zambia’s IDC

October 12, 2023 in Companies, Foreign News by Editor

Cornwell Muleya, the immediate former Uganda Airlines chief executive who left the country under a hail of accusations that were never proven in court, has been appointed as the chief executive officer of Zambia’s Industrial Development Corporation IDC.

Set up in 2014, the IDC is a wholly state-owned company responsible for driving the governments commercial and industrial development agenda.

The appointment of Muleya, a chemical engineer who instead found fame as a chartered accountant and airline executive, took effect on October 11.

“The finance and Administration Committee of the Board of Directors of Industrial Corporation, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Cornwell Muleya as the Chief Executive Officer of IDC with effect from 11^th October 2023” reads a press release that announced the development on October 10.

“Mr Muleya brings with him 34 years of financial and operational experience and business analysis, with demonstrated technical and leadership skills in various top management roles he has held,” the IDC said of Muleya who started his career at Deloitte and Touche before moving to DHL, then to the Zambian and Kenyan operations of PriceWaterHouseCoopers where he led the finance and audit functions. He then moved to Air Botswana where he started out as financial accountant before ascending to the director of finance and subsequently chief executive.

Muleya also served at Air Mauritius and Nairobi based Aviation Leasing Services before he was hired to wind up the Agakhan owned Air Uganda which folded in July 2014. He was then hired to lead Nigeria based Arik Air, before getting lured back to Uganda in 2018, where he led the task force that revived flag carrier Uganda Airlines.

A Seventh-day Adventist who is a stickler for rules, Muleya was often seen by as rigid by Uganda bureaucrats and soon ran afoul of  officialdom, culminating  in his unceremonious exit from the carrier in May 2021. He holds a Bsc Chemical Engineering from Bath University UK, and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Institute of Certified Accountants UK.”

“The Board is confident that Mr Muleya will aggressively and diligently drive the business and transformational agenda of the IDC to yield impactful benefits to its shareholders and to the people of Zambia,” the statement said.