By Monitor Reporter
Feb 18, 2004
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Mr Conrad Nkutu has been appointed managing director designate of Monitor Publications Ltd. Mr Wafula Oguttu yesterday met top Monitor staff and announced his retirement from the position of Editor-in Chief and Managing Director of Monitor Publications. “I’m satisfied with my achievements. Twelve years is a long time.” Wafula said. Speaking from by telephone from Nairobi, Nkutu said: “I am happy to be coming back home after a year and a half of working in Kenya and three years away from the Uganda media.” “I look forward to the challenge of building the Monitor newspaper and radio into stronger commercial entities.” Wafula, 52, said his retirement takes effect on March 31. Wafula described Mr Nkutu as a manager who “has a wealth of experience in the media business”. He described Nkutu’s coming to The Monitor as a “coming back home” because Nkutu was once Country Manager of the East African, the Nation group's regional weekly. Group chief executive Wilfred Kiboro, welcoming back Nkutu, said his experience would contribute to the growth of Monitor Publications and Nation Media. Nkutu has been the Commercial Director of the East African Standard newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya. Before moving to Standard, Nkutu was Company Secretary of The New Vision. Nkutu holds a BA degree in Political Science and Public Administration from Makerere University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Printing and Publishing Management from London College of Printing. He is currently pursuing a distance learning MBA with Herriot Watt University, Scotland. Wafula’s years as MD have seen him managing the first international sell of shares by an indigenous media company when the Monitor merged with Nation Media Group, the biggest in the region. Under his tenure The Monitor has grown from a small company of six employees with a turnover of Shs 350m in 1992 to about Shs 10bn last year. “We have prepared the company over the last three years for this moment. It is an example that an indigenous company can run after its founders have left,” he said yesterday. He leaves after he has laid the foundation for Monitor Publications Ltd to become the biggest independent, multimedia house in the Great Lakes region. “When the three years elapsed last year, my retirement process started,” he said. Wafula remains a shareholder and a member of the board of directors of Monitor Publications Ltd. Speaking about his achievements, he praised the people he has worked with. Waf, as he is fondly known in media circles, has been in journalism since 1978 when he edited Forward, an anti-Amin magazine published by exiles in Tanzania. He returned to Uganda to work at the Weekly Topic as a reporter. He and colleagues started The Monitor in 1992. |
© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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