Chinje's appointment is for a 3-year term beginning July 1, 2014, AMI Board Chairman Trevor Ncube announced in a media statement.
He replaces Mr. Amadou M. Ba, who stepped down at the end of his founding tenure to pursue other professional interests.
Chairman Ncube said in-coming CEO Chinje would be expected to strengthen the role of AMI in improving the quality of media in Africa and reinforcing the financial base of the Initiative.
The new CEO will also liaise with regional and global media institutions to improve the quality of media support interventions on the continent, strengthen management, leadership and professionalism in the African media sector and help African media houses embrace technology to cultivate new revenue streams and enhance sustainability.
Chinje brings to the job stellar journalism, communications and development experience along with valuable management skills and an unalloyed commitment to Africa’s development.
He 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.
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.
He 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 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 World Bank’s spokesperson on African affairs.
Keenly interested in the issues of governance, Chinje’s signature achievement was the launch of the Independent Media for Accountability, Governance and Empowerment (IMAGE) program.
Image 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 2,000 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, 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).
LINA PTK