Standard Group Announces Orlando Lyomu's Replacement

Standard Group Limited on Friday, July 7 announced that the board promoted its Managing Director-Broadcast Division, Joe Munene as the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Orlando Lyomu who resigned after serving five years at the media house.

In a notice by Standard Group Company Secretary Millicent Ng'etich and seen by Viral Tea, the board hailed Munene for his more than two decades of experience in the media, having joined the Mombasa Road-based media house 10 years ago.

"The Board has appointed Mr Joe Munene as the Acting Chief Executive Officer with effect from 6th July 2023. Mr. Munene is currently the Company's Managing Director- Broadcast Division. He has over 20 years of experience in television broadcast management and joined the Company in 2013," stated the company in part.

Munene was additionally revealed to have worked with the Nation Media Group (NMG) as General Manager NTV-Uganda and CNBC Africa.

He is a graduate of the IESE Business School's Advanced Management Programme in Media & Entertainment and also holds an Executive MBA from Jomo Kenyatta University and a Bachelor's degree in Building Economics, from the University of Nairobi.

At the same time, Standard Group's board notified shareholders and members of the public of Lyomu's exit from the media house, which took effect on Thursday, July 6.

Lyomu was appointed as Standard Group's CEO on May 25, 2018, replacing Sam Shollei who had resigned in September 2017. Lyomu was the Group’s Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer prior to his ascension to the top role.

"Pursuant to the provisions of Paragraph G. 05 (1) (b) of the Fifth Schedule of the Capital Markets (Securities) (Public Offers, Listing and Disclosures) Regulations, 2002- amended 2016, the Board of Directors of The Standard Group PLC ("the Company") wishes to notify its shareholders and the general public that the Board has accepted the resignation of Mr. Orlando Lyomu as the Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Company effective 6th July 2023.

"Mr Lyomu joined the Company in 2012 as Finance Director and Executive Director and was subsequently appointed the Group Chief Executive Officer in May 2018," added the notice.

The board thanked Lyomu for his leadership and contribution to the company and wished him the best in his future endeavours.

He was hailed for being instrumental in driving the company's diversification strategy and guiding efforts to build a modern newsroom and a digital-first media house. 

Lyomu was previously serving notice and was expected to leave the century-old media house, having been forced to resign.

Sources who told Viral Tea on Wednesday, June 28 revealed that Lyomu's ouster was a result of boardroom wars at the media house over a financial crisis that led to a massive haemorrhage of staff including talented journalists, most of whom joined rival media houses.

In particular, the Standard Group had brought in a caretaker committee to spearhead financial operations at the century-old company, which hosts media channels such as KTN Home, KTN News, Radio Maisha, The Standard Newspaper, The Nairobian (a weekly tabloid), Vybez Radio, Spice FM, KTN Burudani and KTN Farmers.

In the midst of squabbles within the board, the media house is rumoured to be scouting for a Ksh2 billion investor to turn around its fortunes.

The conflict was alleged to have been triggered by two major shareholders in terms of the normal operations of Standard Group; one of them being the family of the late former president Daniel Arap Moi, regarding the direction the company would take with Lyomu still in charge.

Their decision not to put money in the business was said to have been captured in confrontations which spread across the business which was struggling to meet its financial obligations for several months, leaving the company mandated to make strategic decisions to emerge from the financial deficiency.

Lyomu is a business leader with over 15 years of executive leadership experience in different industries. Before venturing into the media, he worked in the petroleum industry and was in charge of operations across four countries primarily Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

At the media house, he was largely blamed for the mass firings initiated to cut costs, a move that was understood to have slowed down after the company discovered that it did not have the requisite finances to pay laid-off staff, giving them temporary relief.

The firings also manifested arguably the worst talent haemorrhage ever, with its competition picking SMG's star performers.