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ADNOC’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives

AdnocDiversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives
Suzanne Locke 1 November 2023
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Background

ADNOC is a leading diversified energy group, wholly owned by the Emirate
of Abu Dhabi. Its network of fully-integrated businesses operates across the energy value
chain.

ADNOC and sustainability

Under the leadership of His Excellency Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, ADNOC
Managing Director and Group CEO, ADNOC is placing sustainability at the heart of its
strategy.
It is accelerating its decarbonisation plan to bring forward its net zero
target by five years to 2045, and to achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
ADNOC is committed to integrating “best-in-class” health, safety and
environment (HSE) standards across its operations, and to “giving back to communities,
supporting sustainable economic development and investing in cleaner new energies”.

ADNOC employee walks through a tunnel of trees. Picture credit: ADNOC

ADNOC employee walks through a tunnel of trees. Picture credit: ADNOC

 

ADNOC and foreign direct investment (FDI)

For almost five decades, ADNOC has worked in close partnership with the
government, its business partners and the private sector to support and drive growth,
development and diversification in the UAE.
Since 2016, ADNOC has delivered over $65 billion in foreign direct
investment into the UAE economy; helping to support the diversification and growth of the
UAE’s capital markets.

ADNOC’s In-Country Value Programme (ICV)

As a “critical engine for the UAE’s industrial growth”, ADNOC pioneered
the In-Country Value Programme (ICV) in 2018, to maximize the use of local goods and
services, encourage local manufacturing and create private sector job opportunities for UAE
Nationals.
Since then, ADNOC has driven $39.5 billion back into the UAE economy and
the ICV program has been expanded to other sectors at a federal level.
ADNOC’s ICV programme also aims to develop a highly skilled and
productive national workforce in the private sector; it has created more than 5,000 jobs for
UAE nationals in the private sector since its launch.

ADNOC and gender diversity

Women in Drilling for ADNOC at Exploration Well AD-182 in Al Bahyah, Abu Dhabi. Picture
credit: Trevor Brown, Jr./ Trevor Brown Photography
 
ADNOC recognises the value of gender balance and women empowerment, “not only
because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense”, helping to support
better decision-making, innovation and performance.

Across the business

ADNOC is committed to gender diversity and to enabling women to build
fulfilling careers and play key roles as it future-proofs its business.
Women occupy 20 percent of senior leadership positions in ADNOC,
including two CEOs and one Executive Vice President.
Around 900 women are working on site across ADNOC’s onshore and offshore
operational sites. The company has appointed its first female Senior Vice President for
field operations.
ADNOC has invested in infrastructure and facilities to create an
inclusive working environment, including female-only accommodation in the field and
appropriate overalls – a jacket reaching the knee with a headscarf and a helmet.
ADNOC’s onshore field, Rumaitha in Abu Dhabi, is managed by an all-women
engineering team.
ADNOC founded a Gender Balance Committee and policy framework in 2016,
with the goal of supporting the UAE’s National Strategy for Empowerment of Women.
Since 2020, ADNOC has held annual Gender Balance Awards on Emirati
Women’s Day in August, recognising gender balance champions, women leaders, gender balance
initiatives and rising female stars.
In 2020, ADNOC became a founding partner of Aurora50’s Pathway20 accelerator to increase women’s
representation on listed company boards. ADNOC now offers all talented staff seats at
Pathway20 events to broaden its impact and network. In 2022, ADNOC sponsored Aurora50’s 2022
research report, Non-executive
board careers in the UAE: A path to gender balance
. It was also a sponsor of
Aurora50’s The Board Summit in 2020 and
2021.

Targets

ADNOC has committed to ensuring at least one woman sits on the board of
every ADNOC Group company; a pledge which was met and continues to progress.
In 2023, ADNOC signed the UAE Gender Balance Council’s SDG 5 pledge to
put women in 30 percent of leadership roles by 2030.
ADNOC aims to increase female representation in specialised technical
positions to 25 percent by 2030.

In the community

In 2022, ADNOC signed the United Nation’s (UN) Women’s Empowerment
Principles, the primary vehicle for corporate delivery on the gender equality dimensions of
the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The principles include commitments to high-level corporate female
leadership; education and training for career advancement; equal pay for work of equal value
and gender-responsive supply chain practices.

ADNOC and Emiratisation

ADNOC Emirati employees meet. Picture credit: ADNOC

 
Central to ADNOC’s recruitment strategy is its commitment to develop a
national workforce with “the right capabilities to effectively contribute to the growth and
success” of its business, and to “support Emiratisation in line with national strategies”.

Across the business

ADNOC has increased the rate of UAE National employment by 15 percentage
points over the past five years
Some 46 percent of ADNOC Scholars (see ADNOC in the community below) were
women in 2022 .
ADNOC runs a Pioneer Programme to build connections between its retirees
(or pioneers) and new generations of employees. One of its initiatives is known as the Hiwar
Al Ajial or ‘Dialogue of Generations’, where ADNOC veterans speak to staff and students. One
such event was run for International Women’s Day, and another for alumni of ADNOC Technical
Academy. Under ADNOC’s Khebra (meaning ‘experience’ in Arabic) initiative, retirees can be
re-hired on short-term contracts of up to six months to ensure good knowledge transfer.

In the community

ADNOC and Emirati Talent Competitiveness Council (ETCC)’s Nafis programme
aim to create an additional 5,000 skilled jobs for UAE Nationals in the private sector by
2027, in advanced sectors such as nanotechnology, manufacturing and machine learning.
ADNOC will provide training opportunities for 1,000 graduates in private
companies operating in ADNOC’s supply chain through Nafis’s Apprentice Programme.
ADNOC’s ICV programme has created more than 5,000 jobs for UAE nationals
in the private sector since its launch in 2018.
It is part of the company’s commitment to “promote ICV in the private
sector and develop a highly skilled and productive national workforce”.

Inclusivity at ADNOC

ADNOC staff at work in a meeting. Picture credit: ADNOC

 
ADNOC states its people “are our most valuable asset” and “form the basis
for our business objectives and strategy” as a “merit-based and performance-driven
organisation”.
ADNOC is committed to a work environment that embraces diversity and
inclusion, regardless of age, nationality, gender or religion.
This is underpinned by its core values: to be respectful, collaborative,
progressive, responsible and efficient.
Employees are “recognised for their performance and tangible
achievements”.
ADNOC focuses on attracting, developing and retaining the best talent
within a diverse workforce and offering a “respectful” environment where employees can
“unlock their full potential”.
ADNOC is headline sponsor for Aurora50’s The Inclusion Summit, the MENA
region’s largest cross-industry diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) event, where hundreds
of board chairs, directors and C-suite executives assemble.
In 2017, the ADNOC leadership signed a 100% Health, Safety and
Environment (HSE) Pledge that “directs the way we think, act, and conduct business” to
“embed a 100% HSE culture” throughout its operations.
In 2023 LinkedIn named ADNOC one of its top 15 companies to grow a career
in the UAE, based on how well employees are upskilled and set up to get ahead in their
careers.
Work adjustments for people of determination are made on a case-by-case
basis but may include flexible working hours, adapted tools and equipment or additional
child custody leave and educational assistance for employees with children of determination.
ADNOC hosted the Special Olympics World Games 2019 in Abu Dhabi, and was
the official sponsor of the UAE delegation participating at the Special Olympics World Games
in Berlin in 2023.

ADNOC in the community

Mother and son planting in the community. Picture credit: ADNOC

 
ADNOC believes that the success of its business is “linked to the
prosperity of our community” and has a ‘One Community’ approach to creating “positive impact
and lasting value for all”.
ADNOC has invested in education as part of its contribution to developing
a “skilled and diverse” UAE workforce, including the ADNOC Technical Academy – which has
trained over 5,200 UAE Nationals since it was established in 1978 as Abu Dhabi’s first
vocational training institute. As part of a phased 30-month programme, trainees undergo
on-the-job training at ADNOC’s facilities.
A series of ADNOC schools have been running across Abu Dhabi since 2008,
with scholarships, youth and summer programmes and internships. More than 6,700 students are
enrolled, with one school in the capital city of Abu Dhabi and three schools, in the
emirate’s Al Dhafra region, at Ruwais, Madinat Zayed and Ghayathi.
Special policies are set for students who are people of determination
(POD) , with flexible attendance and discounts on fees.
ADNOC retirees (also known as alumni or pioneers) are invited to speak at
ADNOC’s academies and schools, as well as universities with which it has relationships, in
order to ensure a transfer of knowledge across generations.
The ADNOC Scholarship Programme has been running since 1974 to support
students in undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the UAE and abroad.
ADNOC runs an Emirati Coders Programme in partnership with Sandooq Al
Watan (SAW): since 2018, almost 4,000 students have graduated from the programme.
Yas in Schools is a collaboration with Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management
to offer schools Formula 1-based STEM learning, particularly engineering skills.
ADNOC also partners with the UAE Ministry of Education and Bloomberg to
equip young people with specialised financial skills in global capital markets and
commodities trading.
It is also a sponsor of Sharjah University’s Forums for Women in
Research.

ADNOC’s women leaders

Fatema Al Nuaimi

ADNOC role: Executive Vice President, ADNOC Downstream
Business Management

Fatema Al Nuami, Executive Vice President, ADNOC Downstream Business Management and
chair of the ADNOC Gender Balance Committee
 
Ms Al Nuaimi is the Executive Vice President, Downstream Business
management.
In her role she has functional oversight of ADNOC’s downstream industry
companies, with an integrated approach across the value chain.
With over 20 years at ADNOC, Ms Al Nuaimi mi has held a variety of
management and technical positions.
Most recently she was CEO of ADNOC LNG, becoming ADNOC’s first woman CEO
in 2018.
Ms Al Nuaimi was appointed the first Chair of the ADNOC Gender Balance
Committee, which was created in 2016.
She is a board member of Emirates General Petroleum (Emarat)
Establishment, a board member of National Gas Shipping Company (NGSCO) as part of ADNOC
Logistics and Services, and a board member of ADNOC Offshore.
She is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics.
In 2019 she was appointed the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum
Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC) Awards Chair, and she is a member of ADIPEC’s Executive
Steering Committee.

Tayba Al Hashemi

ADNOC role: CEO, ADNOC Offshore

Tayba Al Hashemi, CEO, ADNOC Offshore

 
Ms Al Hashemi began her career in ADNOC in 2002 as a reservoir engineer.
Prior to taking on her current role at ADNOC OffShore – one of the
largest offshore energy producers in the world – in 2023, she held a number of senior
positions, including serving as CEO of ADNOC Sour Gas from 2020 to 2023 and CEO in Al Yasat
Petroleum Operations Company from 2018 to 2020.
In her role as Senior Vice President, Undeveloped Reservoirs in the
Upstream Directorate, from 2016 until 2018, she played a crucial role in unlocking offshore
and onshore hydrocarbon reserves in support of ADNOC’s strategy.
Ms Al Hasemi has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the UAE
University, Al Ain and is also the Chairperson for ADIPEC, the Abu Dhabi International
Progressive Energy Congress.

Muna Al Mehairi

ADNOC role: CEO, Fertil

Muna Al Mehairi, CEO Fertil

 
Ms Al Mehairi was appointed CEO of Fertil in January 2020.
She previously worked for ADNOC Onshore, where she served as senior vice
president strat- egy and business support and senior vice president terminals and pipeline
operations.
She holds an MBA from the UAE University, Al Ain.

ADNOC women on Pathway20

Anoud Almarzouqi

Anoud Almarzouqi, Vice President, Pressure Pumping, ADNOC Drilling, and Pathway20
participant
 
ADNOC role: Vice President, Planning & Performance,
ADNOC Global Trading
Board positions: Director, ADNOC Reinsurance Joined
Pathway20: 2020

Manal Almazrouei

ADNOC role: Vice President, Pressure Pumping, ADNOC
Drilling
Board positions: Former director, Al Dhafra Petroleum
Joined Pathway20: 2020

Ayesha Al Marzooqi

Ayesha Al Marzooqi, Senior Vice President, Onshore Drilling, ADNOC Group, and Pathway20
participant
 
ADNOC role: Senior Vice President, Onshore Development,
ADNOC Group
Board positions: Director, ADNOC Gas Processing Joined
Pathway20: 2021

Shaikha Aldhaheri

Shaikha Aldhaheri, Senior Vice President, Shared Services, ADNOC Group, and Pathway20
participant
 
ADNOC role: Senior Vice President, Shared Services,
ADNOC Group
Board positions: Director, Al Dhafra Petroleum Joined
Pathway20: 2021

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