Ermias Eshetu, the former chief of the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECX), has landed a high paying job with African Renaissance Television Services (ARTS) as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He replaced Mackonen E. Michael, the founding CEO and a returnee from the UK who has also worked with the BBC.
Ermias begins work today, on December 1, 2017. He will be paid a monthly salary of close to 200,000 Br, according to people familiar to the case. But Ermias has declined from giving any comment on the deal he struck.
ARTS is a company established by 25 shareholders including Haile Gebrselassie, Olympic gold-medalists, Gebregzibher Gebremariam, another known athelet, Zemedeneh Negatu, Amare Aregawi, Mekonnen Assefa and other successful personalities in media, education, finance, law, medicine and other professional backgrounds. The compnay plans to start operations in the first quarter of the coming year, with content ready for broadcasting in Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Addis Abeba, according to company sources.
Ermais left ECX almost three months ago and was replaced by Wondimagegnehu Negera, former president of the Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO), just three weeks ago. But his official contract with ECX terminated yesterday, on November 30, 2017.
He has over two decades of technical and leadership experience in multi-national companies, including IBM, Alcatel, Orange and MicroStrategy before he joined the ECX.
Running a media company will be the first stunt for a seasoned manager Ermias is, with fast experience in trading and banking. Yet under formation, ARTS is housed in the building owned by Gebregziybher, on Cameroon Street, adjacent to MAFI Building, across Bole Medihanialem Church. The company has built studios and imported broadcasting equipment, and applied for license from the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority, for domestic transmission.
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