Saullos chilima biography of christopher

Saulos Chilima

Malawian economist and politician (–)

Saulos Klaus Chilima (12 February – 10 June ) was a Malawian economist and politician who served as Vice President of Malawi from to and again from until his death in [1] Chilima assumed office on 28 June , winning the majority alongside presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera.

Chilima also served as the Minister of Economic Planning and Development, as well as Head of Public Sector Reforms, a position he also previously held under the administration of former president Peter Mutharika. Before joining politics, Chilima held key leadership positions in various multi-national companies including Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Airtel Malawi, where he rose to become Chief Executive Officer.[2]

On 10 June , a plane carrying Chilima and eight other passengers crashed in Chikangawa Forest Reserve in Mzimba District, killing all onboard.

At least 41, people attended his state funeral.

Early life and education

Born on 12 February in Ntcheu, Malawi.[3] He was the first youth of Henderson Brown Chilima of Ching'anga Village, T/A Njewa, Lilongwe and Elizabeth Frances Valeira Chilima of Mbilintengerenji Village, T/A Champiti, Ntcheu.

Chilima spent most of his early life in Blantyre where his parents were operational and spent his summer holidays with his paternal and maternal grandparents in Lilongwe and Ntcheu, respectively.[4]

Chilima did his primary college at HHI and Dharap first schools, and his secondary learning process at the Marist Brothers Mtendere Secondary School Thiwi in the Dedza District.[5] He went on to the University of Malawi, Chancellor College, where he graduated with a degree in social sciences in After working for a few years, he returned to his alma mater (University of Malawi) to pursue a master of arts in Economics, graduating in On 10 August , Chilima received his Ph.D in Knowledge Management from the University of Bolton in the United Kingdom.[6]

Business career

A marketer by profession, Chilima started his function career at Lever Brothers (Mw) Limited (now part of Unilever) before moving on to the Leasing and Finance Company of Malawi, and later Southern Bottlers Limited (now Castel Malawi).[7][8] His last professional assignment was at Airtel Malawi where he was hired to lead its sales team before being named the first-ever local managing director for the company in [7]

Chilima's most notable professional career successes incorporate spearheading the strategic and breakthrough projects at Airtel, namely Plan Precision, Yabooka, Airtel Money, and a 3G network upgrade, which resulted in significant impacts on the business revenue and employee engagement, growing Airtel Malawi's annual revenue by 75% over a period of three years from US$54 million in to US$95 million in [9]

Political career

In February , Chilima was the running mate of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Peter Mutharika for the May presidential election.[10]

Chilima later left the DPP and launched his own party, the United Transformation Movement (UTM), on 21 July to contest the May elections.[11][12] On 1 February , the UTM held meetings with two other political parties and an alliance of smaller political parties aimed at forming a united opposition.

These included the Alliance for Democracy (Aford), former President Joyce Banda's People's Party, and the Tikonze People's Movement led by former Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha. They agreed to field one presidential candidate for the election.

Both Banda and Chilumpha later withdrew from the alliance citing "disagreement with the selection of a presidential running mate for the candidate of the upcoming election" as their reason.[13]

In the election, Chilima alongside Michael Usi as a running mate came third with % of the popular vote and the UTM won four seats in the National Assembly.

However, the presidential election was annulled and rerun in In that year, Chilima contested the race as Lazarus Chakwera's running mate for the Malawi Congress Party, in the Tonse alliance which brought up to nine disagreement political parties with hopes to topple the administration of Peter Mutharika.[14]

On 22 June , Chilima was stripped of his delegated powers as a vice president due to his involvement in a US$ million corruption scandal[15] involving alleged influence in the awarding of government contracts.[16]

In November , he was charged on allegations that he received US$, from a British businessman Zuneth Sattar in exchange for awarding government contracts to Xaviar Ltd and Malachitte FZE, two companies linked to Sattar.

He pleaded not guilty to the corruption charges.[17] In May the corruption charges were dropped after the state prosecutor filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Saulos Chilima is a Malawian economist and politician born on 12 February Before joining politics, Chilima held key leadership positions in various multinational companies including Unilever, Coca-Cola and Airtel Malawi, where he rose to become Head Executive Officer. During his tenure, Chilima has been instrumental in promoting various social and economic reforms aimed at improving the lives of Malawians. Under the UTM banner, Chilima contested the presidential election but did not secure the presidency.

President Chakwera had started to assign official duties to Chilima even before the charges were dropped.[18]

Advocacies

Previously, Chilima also served as minister for disaster relief and public events.[19]

Chilima was a member of the Leadership Council of Compact , a partnership that develops and disseminates evidence-based advice to politicians and other decision-makers aimed at ending hunger and undernutrition by ,[20] and wrote on the topic of malnutrition.[21] He spoke on sustainable and inclusive development[22] and at international conferences on ending hunger.[23]

Chilima voiced his lobbying of environmentalism[24] and of physical fitness[25] and sports participation,[26] a stern critic of corruption in politics,[27][28][29] and an active supporter of Archdiocesan seminaries.[30] As a student, he led the students' wing of Alliance for Democracy (Aford), founded by Chakufwa Chihana for championing multi-party democracy.[7]

Personal life

Chilima was married to Mary Chilima.

They have two children, Sean and Elizabeth.[31] He was a Catholic.[32]

Death

Main article: Chikangawa Dornier crash

On 10 June , a Dornier aircraft of the Malawi Defence Force carrying Chilima and eight others went missing in the Chikangawa Forest Reserve in the Northern Region while they were on their way to go to the funeral of former government minister Ralph Kasambara.

President Lazarus Chakwera ordered a search and rescue operation after aviation officials were unable to contact the aircraft.[33] On 11 June , in a national address, Chakwera stated that Chilima and all the other passengers on the plane (including a former First Lady of Malawi, Patricia Shanil Muluzi) were confirmed dead in the crash.[34]

After Chilima's body was recovered, a state funeral service was held for him at the Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on 16 June, during which at least 41, people attended.[35] He was buried on 17 June in his place village of Nsipe, in a ceremony that was also attended by Chakwera and former presidents Bakili Muluzi, Joyce Banda and Peter Mutharika.[36]

See also

References

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    He spent most of his early life in Blantyre where his father worked as an aircraft engineer for Air Malawi, later renamed Malawi Airlines. During school holidays, the young Chilima would shuttle between the villages of Lilongwe and Ntcheu where his grandparents lived. Maziko Matemba, a health activist in Malawi, knew the fallen vice president from his main school days at Dharap. Their paths crossed again later in life when Chilima was already a vice president, and their childhood friendship was instantly reignited.

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    Saulos Klaus Chilima, born on 12 Februarywas an economist and politician who was currently serving as the Vice President of the Republic of Malawi. He took office on 28 June after winning the majority alongside presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera for the second term after occupying the role first on May 30, Chilima was the first Malawian to head Airtel Malawi the leading mobile telecommunications company in the southern African country. Before venturing in telecommunications, he held Senior Sales Marketing positions in the banking sector and the fast-moving consumer goods sector namely the Leasing and Finance Company, Unilever Malawi, Coca cola and Carlsberg.

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