During the course of the African Airlines Association’s (AFRAA) 42 general assembly, the association honoured Ethiopian Ailines CEO, Girma Wake, for his contribution for the development of the African airline industry.
Egypt Air CEO, Eng Hussien Massoud, who was elected as chairman of AFRAA, handed over the trophy to Wake at a gala dinner party held on November 22 at the Sheraton Addis.
Girma Wake has over 42 years of airline management experience in various capacities at the head, regional and area offices of three organizations. Wake has served Ethiopian in variety of management positions for the past 43 years. At Ethiopian, he worked in various managerial positions including manager space control, area manager Ghana, Tanzania and Germany. Director marketing operations and director cargo marketing, the position he held before joining Gulf Air in 1993.
Wake was a member of a senior management team of Gulf Air responsible for cargo management. He briefly left Gulf Air to take a position with DHL as regional general freight manger from 1996 to 1998. He then rejoined Ethiopian as CEO in February 2004.
Wake successfully led the most ambitious growth period in the company’s history, most notably the implementation of Vision 2010, which saw Ethiopian ranked as the 16th most profitable airline in the world.
Wake served as president of the African Airlines Association for one year in 2010. He handed over this post on November 22. After 43 years of service to Ethiopian he would resign from his post in January 2011. In September 2010, he presented his resignation letter to the board of directors of Ethiopian Airlines.