FastJet poaches more SAA executives in boardroom shakeup

Yet more turbulence in the boardroom at struggling Africa-focused airline FastJet. The company announced the appointment of a new chairman, chief financial officer and non-executive director on Friday, as it looks to recover after being forced to go through a series of fundraisings to keep itself in the air. Rashid Wally, currently chairman of South African Airlines subsidiary Mango Airlines, will take over as non-executive chairman. He is the second senior Mango executive to join FastJet in the last year, following the appointment of former Mango chief Nico Bezuidenhout in June. Simultaneously, FastJet announced the departure of its chief financial officer Lisa Mitchell, who will leave “to pursue other opportunities”. She will be replaced by Michael Muller, who has been at the company since November and was previously the CFO of Air Chefs, another SAA subsidiary. Peter Hyde also joins the company as non-executive director. Hyde was previously chief executive of easyBus, the airport shuttle business set up by easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Sir Stelios is the second-largest shareholder in FastJet, and had been a harsh critic of the company’s previous chairman Colin Child.<br/>