Air Mauritius Board Communique - Election of new Chairman and appointment of CEO

The Board of Directors met on 30 August 2012 and nominated Mr Appalsamy Thomas, GOSK as Director and elected him as Chairman of the Board. He is currently Group Head of Human Resources, Marketing and Communications of Harel Mallac and Chairman of Mauritius Telecom. Mr Thomas started his career with Air Mauritius and spent thirteen years with the national carrier, occupying several positions including that of Executive Adviser to the Chairman and Managing Director. In 1986, he joined British American Tobacco (Mauritius) as Human Resources Manager before embarking on an international career for nearly 5 years with the same company. In 2001, he joined consultancy firm DCDM in Mauritius as a free- lance consultant and, in 2004, became its CEO for the Central, Eastern and Southern Africa Region.

Mr Appalsamy Thomas holds a Diploma in Personnel Management and a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety as well as an MBA from the University of Surrey, UK. He is a Fellow of the following bodies: Chartered Institute of Management of UK, Mauritian Institute of Management and Mauritius Institute of Directors.

The Board also confirmed Mr Andre Viljoen as Chief Executive Officer. He was appointed Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer in April 2009 and was the Acting CEO since December 2010.

Mr Viljoen is a Chartered Accountant (SA) who served 3 years articles with Coopers & Lybrand (now Price Waterhouse Coopers). He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Honours Accounting Science degree and has over 30 years experience in the airline and travel industry. He was the Financial and Commercial Director of the Comair
Group from 1980 to 1995.