Abidjan Airport: Appointment of a new CEO

On 19 May 2020, the Board of Directors of AERIA (Abidjan International Airport) appointed Mr. Aka Manouan as Chief Executive Officer of AERIA. He will begin his new role on 01 June 2020, replacing Mr Gilles Darriau, who will embark on his retirement.

On this occasion, General Abdoulaye Coulibaly, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AERIA, underlined “the major contribution of Gilles Darriau to the modernisation and development of Abidjan Airport during the eight years he served as CEO”. He also wished to pay tribute to “his strong capacity for work, his leadership skills and his professional and efficient management of the company”.  General Coulibaly added that “AERIA favored the appointment of a leader who already worked within the company. As Deputy CEO of AERIA since May 2015, Mr. Aka Manouan has a deep understanding of all the activities of the company and its culture. He also has all the skills required to implement the strategic orientations defined by the Board of Directors”.

Mr. Aka Manouan is an Officer of the French Air Force, graduating as an Engineer from the Air Force School of Salon-de-Provence (France) - Class of 1983 and Doctor of the National Higher French School of Aeronautics and Space of Toulouse (France).

After working for the GATL (Groupement Aérien de Transport et de Liaison) of the Côte d'Ivoire Air Force and for the national airline AIR IVOIRE for three years, Mr. Aka MANOUAN returned to ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales) as a Research Engineer in Toulouse, where he completed his doctorate in 1994.

In Côte d'Ivoire in 1996, he joined the BNETD (Bureau National d'Études Techniques et de Développement), where he served as Secretary General for ten years, then as Special Advisor to the CEO until his departure in 2015, to join AERIA as Deputy CEO.