John Lamola

Malesela John Lamola is the Chief Executive Officer at South African Airways. He retains the Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy of Technology position at the University of Johannesburg. Professor Lamola obtained his PhD from Edinburgh University and an MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, USA). He is a rated researcher (C2) with the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) and a professional member of the Society on Social Implications of Technology of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - USA). Besides being an internationally acclaimed academic in the field of African Social Philosophy, Professor Lamola is an accomplished businessman with a proprietary private equity portfolio that includes holdings in aviation, mining, and internet technologies. His career in aviation started in 1996 when he rose to the position of CEO at Denel Aviation MRO. He served on the Board of Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) between 2012 and 2017. He joined South African Airways in July 2021, initially as non-executive chairman of its Board of Directors and as Chief Executive since May 2022.