Angolan President Sacks Sonangol Board, Puts Daughter in Charge

Angola's president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed his daughter, Africa's richest woman, to head state oil and gas group Sonangol.

Isabel dos Santos has been appointed a non-executive director and chair of Sonangol's board of directors.

The president also dismissed the entire Sonangol board, appointing a new CEO, Paulino Fernando de Carvalho Geronimo to replace former CEO, Francisco de Lemos Jose Maria.

The board clear-out was announced by state news agency Angop early June 3, bizarrely beneath a headline about the sacking of the health minister. Angop said that the President acted "under his constitutional powers" in dismissing the entire Sonangol board. Three months ago, he had signalled his intention to step down as president in 2018.  

Sonangol also issued a statement June 3, saying that the new board was appointed by order of a decree issued the previous day.

Bloomberg announced the dismissal of the Sonangol board late on June 2; it also reported that Boston Consulting Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Vieira de Almeida & Associados had been picked to advise the board on the execution of its strategy, citing Isabel dos Santos as its source.

Spain's Caixabank in April reached a deal to buy Isabel dos Santos’s stake in the Portuguese bank, Banco BPI, the source of much of her wealth.

Mark Smedley