African Media Initiative appoints Cameroonian CEO

The African Media Initiative, AMI, appointed Cameroonian national Eric Chinje as its new Chief Executive Officer to replace outgoing CEO Amadou M. Ba for a 3-year term beginning July 1, 2014.

According to a letter from the office of the chair of the AMI to its Staff and Major Stakeholders, Eric Chinje was selected after an international selection process.

“It is my pleasure to inform you that the Board of the African Media Initiative (AMI) has, at the end of an international selection process, decided to appoint Mr. Eric Chinje, a Cameroonian national, as the new Chief Executive Officer of AMI.” The letter reads in part.

Chinje will be expected to bring his experience in stellar journalism, communications and development along with valuable management skills to Africa’s development.

Meanwhile, Dr. Roukaya Kasenally has been appointed acting CEO until Chinje who is currently Senior Advisor with the Washington, DC-based International Communications and Trade Relations firm, KRL International, where he has been providing high-level, strategic communications advice to the Governments of Liberia and South Sudan among others, assumes his new position.

Mr. Chinje has an extensive experience in international communication which is on of the qualities that saw him selected.

A veteran broadcaster, former Head of News and Programs and Editor-in-Chief of Cameroon Television and, at various times from 1984- 1991, a contributing correspondent for CNN World Report, and a stringer for the BBC World Service, Voice of America, and Deutsche Welle Radio.

He was also Director of Strategic Communications at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, London. Spent over 16 years at the World Bank in Washington, DC and held senior management positions, including leading the Global Media Development Program at the World Bank Institute (WBI) and as Manager of the Africa Region Strategic Communications (AFRSC) Unit where he oversaw a team of over 80 communication professionals located across Sub-Saharan Africa. He was the Bank’s Spokesperson on African affairs.

Chinje is married to Diane Aurelie and they are blessed with four children: Tania Siri, Jon-Colin Muntalo, Sonya Abiba Shiraneh and Michael Khan.