The Board of the African Media Initiative (AMI) has appointed Mr. Eric Chinje, a Cameroonian national, as the new Chief Executive Officer of AMI. Mr. Chinje’s appointment is for a 3-year term beginning July 1, 2014. He will be expected to build on the successes of his predecessor, Mr. Amadou M. Ba, by:
- Strengthening the role of AMI in improving the quality of media in Africa;
- reinforcing the financial base of the Initiative;
- Liaising with regional and global media institutions to improve the quality of media support interventions on the continent;
- Strengthening management, leadership and professionalism in the African media sector and
- Helping African media houses embrace technology to cultivate new revenue streams and enhance sustainability.
Dr Roukaya Kasenally has been appointed acting CEO until Mr Chinje assumes his new position.
Eric Chinje brings stellar journalism, communications and development experience along with valuable management skills and an unalloyed commitment to Africa’s development.
Mr. Chinje 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. He came to KRL after a stint as Director of Strategic Communications at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, London.
Eric Chinje was chosen for the wide experience he brings to the position. A veteran broadcaster, Chinje was 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.
Mr. Chinje 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.
Keenly interested in the issues of governance, Mr. Chinje’s signature achievement was the launch of the Independent Media for Accountability, Governance and Empowerment (IMAGE) program that ran a series of journalism capacity-building workshops on Economics and Business Reporting, Investigative Journalism, Covering the Budget, Reporting on Agriculture and others, reaching over 2000 journalists in Africa and Asia. He also served as Vice Chair of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Africa Club from 1996–2002.
Between 2004 and 2008, Mr. Chinje was Head of External Affairs and Communications at the African Development Bank, working at the AfDB temporary headquarters in Tunis.
Mr. Chinje is currently a Visiting Scholar at the George Mason University in Virginia, USA. He received a BA (Honors) from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon (1977), an MSc in Telecommunications from the Newhouse School of Communications, Syracuse University (1981), and was a Fellow for International and Intercultural Communications at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University (1991). (Source: AMI press release)