Dapo Olumide Quits Virgin Nigeria
10:19 AM
Dapo Olumide was a formidable force and a change manager who transformed the debt ridden airline(accumulated by Virgin Group) into a force to be reckoned with!He was an aviation professional par excellence and during his tenure Nigerian Eagle Airlines relisted by IATA in the IOSA certification,the first under a Nigerian managemnt!Nigerian Eagle Airlines is the first and only airline in Nigeria to acquire an IOSA certification and has one of the best safety records in West Africa!A captain with 28 year experience, Olumide earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, USA in 1980 after which he joined Aero Contractors in 1982.
He became Virgin Nigeria CEO in May last year and during the period he oversaw the private carrier's signing of code share agreements with Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines;the airline also underwent a rebranding in September 2009 changing its name from Virgin Nigeria to Nigerian Eagle Airlines.He described the rebranding as "not just about name change but a new dawn that has birthed an aspirational airline that will rule the African skies and a representation of the future of African aviation"The rebranding was meant to give the airline a truly Nigerian and African identity!
In December last year,the airline signed an MOU with Delta Airlines to "explore areas of commercial cooperation that will expand travel options between North America and Nigeria."
Last year,during the AFRAA AGA in Mozambique,he was elected AFRAA vice chairman and is known as one of the proponents for the integration and merger of African Airlines.He also received the award of the Best Airline CEO in Africa by Akwaaba African Travel Market Awards.
Dapo Olumide was a great talent for Nigerian Aviation and will surely be missed by the Nigerian and African aviation fraternity;although we bet,he is unlikely to stay on the sidelines for long!One instance I remember vividly was during the signing of the Code Share Agreement with Kenya Airways atop a Lagos Office and Dapo clearly professed is undying love for African aviation:"I have a great passion for African Aviation"
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Sounds like a personal PR write up-What exactly was his contribution and what would he be missed for?...IOSA was gotten under supervision of the airline's former CEO, not Dapo!.....The guy's just a narcist, shame such a good site is fanning his narcistic ego!
Hey, I guess you must be one of those that were sacked after he took office. If you can not appreciate how someone could take over a debt ridden venture and sustain its operations without liquidating, despite non injection of funds, then you being an ingrate is a better qualifying word.
I salute you Dapo, I am one of your distant admirers.
I am an ex-staff of Virgin Nigeria and I wish to tell the entire world that Dapo tried his best for the company. There is no doubt that he felt that the whites ran the company to their own advantage but there were Nigerian collaborators who facilitated the mess.
Dapo has left a big shoe that Jimoh himself may not be able to put on.
I hope the new GMD will not change the fine culture of customers service to the Nigerian jaguda culture of doing things.
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Obviously a lot of gentlemen score people without having a benchmark for the score. Dapo might have scored high but over what? As a change manager, did he move the company from one level to the other? Did he increase the company's revenues? Did he position the company for growth? Did he open new routes? Simple business benchmarks that require simple answers. Answer these then you can say he did great to Virgin Nigeria
its so obvious this gentleman before me is blind!blinded by the fact that if not for anything.........the rebranding of Virgin Nigeria which Virgin Atlantic Group pulled away from because of debt issues. He definitely did a great join still making big airline giants like kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airline invest in a debt-ridden airline.much kudos to him and i'm so sure Mr Jimoh would never be able to replace such big vacuum. But hey why blame him for resigning?A man with such predigree knows his onions and would not have it tanished by a Jimoh Ibrahim who could not manage NICON Airways, NICON Insurance, Global Fleet Holdings and who also had big issue with The Association of VGC Residents of Fradulent allegations. I wish Capt Dapo more successes in his future endeavours whatever they maybe, because people like him never fail to impressive and cause a great change in any organization they find themselves.Keep up the good work on this blog.
cheers mate!