MaryJane Mwangi takes over formally as CEO at National Oil Corporation
The board of directors of the National Oil Corporation of Kenya has confirmed the acting chief executive officer MaryJane Mwangi after being on interim capacity for eighteen months.
MaryJane Mwangi had formerly been the General Manager, Downstream Operations at the National Oil Corporation of Kenya under the former CEO Sumayya Hassan-Athmani who proceeded on terminal leave ahead of her contract expiry in March 2017 after a spate of suspensions and office politics.Maryjane had also been put on acting capacity at the state corporation in February 2016 after Sumayya Athmani was sent on compulsory leave.
Sumayya had landed in trouble with various organizations including the consumers federation of Kenya COFEK which had questioned the award by NOCK to grant Western Geco exclusive rights to acquire any data over any offshore acreage exclusive permits as well as the inability by NOCK to stabilize fuel prices which occasioned high food and transport costs hence higher inflation.
Sumayya had been at the helm of the National Oil Corporation since 2010 replacing Mwendia Nyaga as CEO.
MaryJane’s reign which commenced on August 1st 2017 for a period of thirty six months follows a series of interviews organized by the board of which she scored highly to be announced as the top ranked candidate.
Prior to the current position Maryjane was the head of sales and marketing at National Oil Corporation of Kenya. She has also held different positions including at Chevron (Caltex Oil)Kenya Limited where she was the Sales Business Consultant as well as the LPG Manager at Shell and BP and LPG Supervisor at Agip Kenya Limited.
The new CEO holds a Masters degree in Business Administration, Strategic Management and Marketing Management from the University of Nairobi as well as Higher Diploma in Human Resource Management. She also has certifications on advanced management and corporate governance.
The National Oil Corporation of Kenya is a fully integrated State Corporation involved in all aspects of the petroleum supply chain covering the upstream oil and gas exploration, midstream petroleum infrastructure development and downstream marketing of petroleum products. In the upstream, National Oil facilitates and directly participates in oil and gas exploration activities in Kenya. As a facilitator, National Oil is tasked with the marketing of Kenya’s exploration acreage, management of gas and exploration data and the running of the National Petroleum Laboratory among other attendant responsibilities.
National Oil is also among the few African national oil companies directly involved in the search for oil and gas. National Oil operates its own exploration acreage in Block 14T which is located within the Tertiary Rift Basin and runs from the shores of Lake Bogoria down to Lake Magadi Basin on the border of Kenya and Tanzania.