UM Signs Agreement with Africa's Largest Airline

Front row (left to right): Dr. Noel Wilkin, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, sign memorandum of understanding to explore areas of education opportunities and to enable Ethiopian Airlines to focus its new media marketing on global markets. Back row: Dr. Donald Cole, Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs; Dr. Will Norton, Jr., Professor and Dean of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media; Solomon Debebe, Managing Director of Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Blair McElroy, Interim Senior International Officer and Director of Study Abroad; and Dr. Zenebe Beyene, Instructional Assistant Professor and Director of International Programs of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. Beyene and Gebremariam’s friendship initiated the new partnership.

Gebremariam said the agreement lays the foundation for the two entities to work together and will hopefully have an influence in the U.S.  
“We are concerned that although we have been flying to the U.S. for the last 20 years, we are not well known,” Gebremariam said. “Brand awareness is very low, so we want to improve that, and the Meek School can help us.”
The partnership will promote Ethiopian Airlines through digital services and create an exchange program where students and faculty members can be trained in Ethiopia, or students of the aviation academy can gain experience in Oxford at the university. Aviation academy officials are also looking to introduce online programs to their Leadership and Career Development Training Center and upgrade their promotional and sales training to reflect advances in digital promotion technology and changing consumer behavior.
Gebremariam and Solomon Debebe, managing director of the aviation academy, also met with the university’s School of Business in hopes to build an executive MBA program.
The program would largely focus on managing and strategy in business, Debebe said.
“An MBA is about managing business units,” Debebe said. “The Ethiopian Airlines is now an aviation consisting of eight strategic business units. We need executives to manage the business.”
The aviation academy is one of the airlines’ eight units. The academy has grown to be one of the largest in the region in Africa. It approximately has over 1,000 students but can hold over 4,000.
The students come from a variety of backgrounds, but mostly includes those from Africa and the Middle East.
“Now, we are aggressively promoting [the academy] because a lot has been invested in the academy,” Debebe said. “It has the capacity to care for the needs beyond the airline.”
Future students from the university will be able to participate in the academy along with the different departments of the airline to gain experience. From the academy to the marketing department, students will be able to “have the feel” of working for an airline.
The partnership between the airline and the university may advance the current curriculum so that students are prepared to work on an executive level.
“[The partnership] shows how much we want to work together,” Debebe said.

By Talbert Toole, associate editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com.