Linus Awute oversees and directs the staff responsible for United Nigeria’s administrative services by collaborating with all management staff to identify and deliver the required administrative support operations for United Nigeria Airlines.

Prior to joining United Nigeria, Dr. Awute served as a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Secretariat of the Government of the Federation, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence and Federal Ministry of Health. Dr. Awute also served as the acting Minister of the Federal Ministry of Health in 2015.

Linus was born in Nigeria on 23rd February 1961. After his high school education at Nyemoni Grammar School, he received a Federal Government Scholarship Award in 1980 to study in the USSR. He was admitted into the Belarussian Agricultural Academy and Taskent Order of the Peoples Agrarian University where he obtained an M.Sc degree in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry in 1986. He also obtained an M. Phil degree in Environmental Management and now Ph.D in view with the Institute of Geosciences and Space Technology of the Rivers State University.

In the course of his career as a civil servant, Linus had been exposed to Executive Training in Leadership and Governance mainly in the United Kingdom, Ghana, Geneva and the United States of America. In 2011 he was awarded a doctorate degree (Honoris Causa) in Environmental Management by the Commonwealth University, Belize.

From 1989, he worked in many public institutions as a civil servant where he grew from rank to rank to become a Director in the Federal Civil Service. In that capacity he served as Director Planning Research and Statistics at the following entities: National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP); National Food Reserve Agency, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, all between 2004 & 2007. He became a Federal Permanent Secretary in 2008 and served in that capacity in the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Secretariat of Government of the Federation, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry of Health where he served at two distinct periods (2009 – 2011 and April 2014 – Nov. 2015). In 2015, he doubled as Permanent Secretary and Acting Minister of Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in that capacity, he joined and or represented the president of Nigeria at both regional and global level meetings, seminars and conferences with direct bearing on global and regional health security. In July 2015, he was proclaimed the best Permanent Secretary and honoured with the National Leadership Award which admitted him to the Leadership Hall of Fame for his transparent governance and accountability in the health sector of Nigeria and for being the core administrative factor in the successful and timely containment of the Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria, being also the secretary of the Inter–Ministerial Presidential Committee on Ebola Containment in Nigeria and the Chairman, Technical Committee on the Establishment of the Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Nigeria. That same year, the Rotary International, District 9140-Nigeria, also honoured him with Award for Excellence in Public Service.

He served in many Governing Boards and Committees among which are, Board of Nigerian Defence Academy (Secretary), Nigerian Army Council (Secretary), Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (Chairman), Board of National Intelligence Bureau (Member), National Council on Health (Secretary), National Universities Commission (Member), Board of Standard Organization of Nigeria (Member), Board of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (Secretary) etc, etc. Five years following his retirement in 2015, he was again invited in 2020, by the Hon. Minister of Health, Dr. Emmanuel Osagie Ehanire to head a committee in the health sector of Nigeria. He therefore chaired the National Committee on the Provision of Health Insurance for Retirees and Elderly in Nigeria.

Linus Awute is an alumnus of the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru – Jos. He is also an annual guest lecturer of the institute. He is a double Paul Harry Fellow of Rotary Foundation of the Rotary International. He hails from Rivers State and lives in Abuja with his family of five (5) children. He speaks fluent English and Russian, including many local languages and dialects. At the local level he served as the President of Old Boy Association of Nyemoni Grammer School Abonnema, for twenty years (1997- 2017) and seventeen (17) years as Chairman of Ogbakor Agba-Ndele, a Community Development Assembly (1999 – 2016). He is currently the Director of Administration and Management of United Nigeria Airlines Company Limited as well as the Special Adviser to the CEO of the company from the inception of the company in 2019 to date