Born on February 12, 1973 in Blantyre, Malawi, Saulos Klaus Chilima was a father of two and served as Malawi’s vice president from 2014 until his death in a plane crash on June 10, 2024.
Mr. Chilima was the first born child of Henderson Brown Chilima and Elizabeth Frances Chilima. His father worked as an aircraft engineer for air Malawi, now Malawi airlines.
Chilima assumed office on 28 June 2020, after winning the majority alongside presidential candidate Lazarus Chakwera. Chilima also served as the Minister of Economic Planning and Development, as well as Head of Public Sector Reforms, a position he also previously held under the administration of former president Peter Mutharika.
He attended HHI and Dharap primary schools, and later secondary education at the Marist Brothers Mtendere Secondary School Thiwi in the Dedza District. He later attended the University of Malawi, Chancellor College, where he graduated with a degree in social sciences in 1994. After working for a few years, he returned to his alma mater to pursue a master’s degree in Knowledge Management, graduating in 2006. On 10 August 2015, Chilima received his Ph.D in Knowledge Management from the University of Bolton in the United Kingdom.
He married Mary Nkhamanyachi Chilima with whom he shares two children, Sean and Elizabeth.
He started his career at Lever Brothers (Mw) Limited (now Unilever) before moving on to the Leasing and Finance Company of Malawi, and later Southern Bottlers Limited. Chilima’s last professional assignment in the corporate space was at Airtel Malawi. At Airtel Malawi he grew the company’s annual revenue by 75% over a period of three years from $ 54m in 2010 to $ 95m in 2013.
