To Doris Akpovwa as a Fellow of NAPE

On Thursday, November 21, 2019, Mrs. Doris Akpovwa, née Lawson, was one of the six distinguished petroleum experts admitted to the fellowship of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE). In this male-dominated body, Doris was the only lady so honoured this year. She is a geophysicist of over 30 years standing. She started her career with Ashland Oil, now Addax in 1989 and left 5 years after to join Statoil where she spent 20 years getting to Senior management levels before quitting to start her own business. Doris and I met at the University when she joined my class some 35 years ago at the age of 15. She was easily the youngest in our set and some of us thought she was missing her way. Shortly after, she showed great resilience and intellect, graduating four years after with a degree in geology. A few years later, we were to become classmates again at the MBA class in the University of Lagos where she also excelled and passed in flying colours. She was not done as she subsequently took time off work to travel to the prestigious Imperial College London and a year later she returned with an MSC in Geosciences. In 2008, Doris secured a British Chevening Fellowship and that saw her proceeding to the University of Reading where she studied Energy Economics. As if all those were not enough, she enrolled and qualified as a Chartered Tax Practitioner. This amazing and brilliant amazon is married to the award-winning publisher Dan Akpovwa and the marriage is blessed with three wonderful children. One must admire her self-effacing and unobtrusive carriage. In spite of her achievements, she has remained a mother, a wife, and most importantly, a human being. She loves working and mentoring children. She also publishes a children’s magazine called “Teeky” and gets involved in a lot of charity work. This column celebrates the amazing Doris Tamunotonye Akpovwa on her achievements and wishes her all the best in her busy and fulfilling life.