fastjet Tanzania appoints four new directors

Ed Winter fastjet Plc CEO and Kyle Hayward, fastjet GM South Africa, are joined on the board by Tanzanians Ami Mpungwe and Lawrence Masha who will serve as non-executive directors. Angus Saunders, fastjet's chief financial officer, and Richard Bodin, fastjet's chief commercial officer also join as executive directors.  

Ami Mpungwe spent 25 years in the Tanzanian diplomatic service, including six years as Tanzania's  first Ambassador to South Africa.   In 1999, he received the Order of Good Hope, South Africa's highest award granted to foreign citizens for his contribution to Peace and Democracy in South Africa and in the SADC region and for establishing closer bilateral ties between South Africa and Tanzania.  

Mpungwe is non-executive deputy chairman of AIM-listed Richland Resources and is chairman of TanzaniteOne Mining, SAGCOT Catalytic Fund and MultiChoice Tanzania.  

Lawrence Masha is a lawyer and businessman with strong political ties throughout Africa. He is managing partner at IMMMA Advocates (a member of the DLA Piper Group) in Dar es Salaam and has served in a variety of senior political positions in the Tanzanian Government.  

Ed Winter, interim chairman and chief executive officer of fastjet, said:  "I am delighted we have two such prominent members of the Tanzanian business community joining fastjet's Tanzanian Board.  Ami Mpungwe and Lawrence Masha bring a wealth of knowledge and experience of the African, and specifically Tanzanian, business and political landscape.  We look forward to working with them to continue to build our increasingly successful airline. We are proud of the fact that fastjet has helped both democratise air travel and improve the quality of aviation in Tanzania. We employ a growing Tanzanian workforce - indeed we are currently looking to recruit an additional 15 East African pilots - and the people of Tanzania have repeatedly expressed their whole-hearted support. The appointment of two such prominent Non-Executive Directors is further testament to our commitment to Tanzania.” 

He added: “This is a very positive time for fastjet.  As recently announced, we have recently started operating internationally with our route linking Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg and the newly-launched Dar es Salaam to Mbeya route has been so successful that we have rapidly added extra capacity to meet demand."