Diezani Alison-Madueke

Diezani Alison-Madueke is a Nigerian business executive and politician. She is a significant player in the country’s oil and gas sector and a proponent of women's rights. While serving the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Minister of Transportation, Minister of Mines and Steel Development and Minister of Petroleum Resources, Alison-Madueke created positive economic development and growth in the country. She also held several high-ranking roles in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd. Alison-Madueke is best known as the female driving force behind Nigeria’s major oil and gas transformation. She made history as the first female to become executive director of Shell, operating in Nigeria, in over 80 years. Alison-Madueke also became the first female President of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and the first female President, ministerial meeting, GECF (Gas Exporting Countries Forum.) Diezani Alison-Madueke is passionate about helping other women achieve their full potential within male-dominated industries. She created The Network of Women in Oil and Gas (NEWOG) and continued working on making it possible for other women to enter the industry even though it's predominantly male. As she transformed the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry's infrastructure, Diezani Alison-Madueke was a major voice for transformative sector change on the international stage. With her in the driving seat for several years, Nigeria’s oil and gas sector ranked as 6th most powerful in the world. While Alison-Madueke served as Petroleum Minister, she spearheaded an improved framework for processes and procedures and new governing rules for the industry. Her efforts resulted in the massive inclusion of indigenous participation in both the downstream service sector and the upstream sector. Various infrastructural projects were implemented, and the stability of the petroleum product supplies were restored, ending the perennial fuel scarcity. In its entirety, this gave Nigeria's economy a significant boost. Diezani Alison-Madueke helped empower local enterprises in Nigeria boosting their active participation and allowing them to meet international counterparts on a more level playing field. She made the critical gas revolution of Nigeria possible by repositioning the downstream subsector and ensuring that the Nigerian Content Act was signed and implemented. This gave local service companies, and the Nigerian economy, a massive boost.