Special Report on Nigeria’s Exceptional and Most Value-adding Female Professionals - The Guardian Nigeria News
Edidiong Ekwere, Manager, Corporate Transformation Advisory, NLNG.
Edidiong Ekwere, Manager, Corporate Transformation Advisory, NLNG.
Edidiong Amama Ekwere trained as a geologist and began her career at Shell, initially working across community development, environmental management and HSE before moving into exploration geoscience. She is the current Manager, Corporate Transformation Advisory at NLNG, a role which puts her at the centrestage of translating NLNG’s strategic ambition into an integrated and executable enterprise transformation agenda.
“A central part of my work is supporting our large-scale transformation portfolio, the organisation’s key transformation initiative by maintaining alignment across the operational, organisational, cultural, people, process, technology, data, and other business dimensions that collectively enable transformation”, she says while explaining her function in the company.
She added: “I add value by helping the organisation connect strategy, people, processes, technology, and data; by making progress and outcomes more visible; and by creating the conditions for timely decisions, sustained behavioural change, and stronger enterprise performance.”
Edidiong who holds a Doctorate in Business Administration specialising in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has not had an entirely linear career trajectory. After over 13 years in Shell, she went into entrepreneurship, starting Amama Design Atelier, but later joined Ardova Plc where she led enterprise strategy, portfolio management, process automation, advanced analytics, data governance, customer experience, culture and delivery across functions. Apart from this, she led the rebrand from Forte Oil to Ardova, introduced OKR and Agile approaches and helped embed stronger reporting and execution disciplines while also contributing to revenue growth from N150billion to more than N200billion in 18 months. From Ardova, she ported to Dorman Long Engineering as General Manager, Strategy & Digital Business Transformation, before eventually berthing at NLNG.
“The unifying thread throughout my journey has been transformation, understanding what exists, seeing what could be better, and helping to build the structures, capabilities, and momentum required to move from one to the other. I bring the discipline of a scientist, the perspective of a strategist, the pragmatism of an entrepreneur, and the imagination of an artist to the work I do”, she maintained.
According to her, there have been defining moments across the different chapters of her career. As an exploration geoscientist at Shell, she recalled contributing approximately 50 million barrels of oil equivalent to the portfolio through prospectivity reviews, and supporting earlier work that resulted in an increase of approximately 500 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Also, leading the rebranding of Forte Oil to Ardova Plc is another important milestone to her. This is because the rebranding involved aligning stakeholders around a renewed organisational direction and translating that ambition into a coherent brand. Seeing the work receive international recognition, including Gold at the 2021 Transform Awards Middle East and Africa was particularly rewarding to her.
Edidiong’s overarching goal is to position the Corporate Transformation Advisory as the trusted compass and catalyst for change at NLNG, helping to make the company more resilient, and innovative and ready for the future.
And to aspiring female professionals, she encourages them to become builders and learn to take an idea from nothing to something useful, valuable and enduring. Also, she charged them not to allow the world to reduce them to one role, as career is not a cage.
