Angeline Maangi is the incumbent managing director at Oryx Energies Kenya – an affiliate of Swiss-based Eryx Energies South Africa (Oesa).
Ms Maangi made history as the company’s first female managing director, assuming the role in January 2023. She is the second of only two female MDs within Oesa.
Oryx Energies is among the leading oil marketers in the country.
Background & Education
Angeline Maangi was born and raised in Kisumu County.
She attended Lutheran Nursery School and sat for her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations in 1988 at Kibuye Mixed Primary School. She emerged second in Nyanza Province and 39th nationally and was drafted to join the Alliance Girls High School.
“I was always shy and quiet while growing up, so getting to join Alliance Girls was a game-changer for me because interacting with girls from all parts of Kenya opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of what life could be like for me if I dared to dream big,” she told the Nation during a past interview.
“After high school, I attended Strathmore College for a little bit of IT while waiting to join university. I wanted to be a doctor and I was hoping to study medicine. Unfortunately, I missed the entry cut-off points by one. I had 53 out of the required 54. The disappointment of not getting to study medicine was huge but I settled for my second option, which was food science and technology at the University of Nairobi (UoN),” she says.
She graduated from Strathmore University and did a year of Food Science and Technology.
Angeline later bagged a scholarship to the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai to pursue a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering.
“Studying in China was not easy. The language barrier aside, this was the late 90s and China was still in the early years of opening its doors to the world. I remember they used to call it ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ and there was subtle racism. It was a lonely place for a 19-year-old girl who, having been raised in Kisumu, had never even travelled beyond Nairobi, let alone venturing outside Kenya,” she recounted.
Ms Maangi noted that being in China at a relatively young age made her responsible and focused as she was aware of her family’s pride and huge expectations.
“Everything was taught in Chinese; so I had to work extra hard to be at par with my classmates. I had a big fat Chinese-English/English-Chinese Petrochemical Engineering Dictionary that I would use to keep up with the rest of the class. Failure was not an option as I had been an A student all my life so this was not the time for me to start failing, language barrier notwithstanding. So, I became a bookworm and I’m glad it paid off big time. And over two decades later, here I am, heading one of the largest importers of petroleum products into Kenya,” she said.
Career
Angeline Maangi’s career began to take off after she joined the team at Oilibya Kenya formerly Mobil Oil Kenya Limited. She worked at the company’s Mombasa plant.
Luck befell her when the position of fuel supply coordinator fell vacant at the company. Her boss at the time, Mr Peter Kamau noticed her immense potential coupled up with being a young lady and a chemical engineer, he recommended her for the position despite a lack in prior experience.
The prestigious position allowed a young Angeline Maangi to interact with key stakeholders in the oil business including government agencies and private entities. She had began to make waves in the industry.
“The learning curve was really steep but I love that my employer had a culture of intentional capacity building and I was given all the resources I needed to learn how to perform well at my job. Mr Kamau, who was my boss at that time, was a great teacher, mentoring me and showing me the ropes. I also had the support of the head of the department at the time, Ms Millicent Onyonyi, the current CEO of Lexo Energy. She inspired me a great deal with her leadership and management style,” she added.
Ms Maangi joined Oryx Energies in 2009, where she climbed the ladder to the position of deputy managing director and finally as managing director.
“I must say that I have been extremely fortunate to have had great bosses over the years and this has really helped my career grow. My immediate former boss, Mr Christian Callede, took a chance on me when he headhunted me and offered me a senior position as operations manager. I had absolutely zero experience! I remember when I was offered the position of MD, I told him I was absolutely terrified because I wasn’t sure I would be able to hack it. But the faith he and my current boss have in me gives me the confidence and the courage to just take each day at a time, knowing that I have their full support,” she says.
Ms Maangi morphs her leadership style around a story her father narrated to her at around the time she began to assume leadership roles.
“He told me to always remember the rule of 3 Fs: (a) friendliness towards everyone no matter what position or role they play in the organisation; (b) fairness in dealing with everyone, no matter who they are in the organisation; and (c) firmness when dealing with everyone, no matter who they are,” she recalls.
She has since adopted these and they form the basis of her leadership style. She is always proud to see the people who have passed through her hands flourish in their careers.
“I have worked with some pretty amazing people…people who started their careers at very junior levels and were reporting to me as they honed their skills. And when opportunities arose for them to grow within the company and showcase their potential or spread their wings and fly in pursuit of other interests, they performed beyond my wildest expectations,” she says.
On what keeps her awake at night, Ms Maangi says she thinks a lot about the business and the success of the company and all those lives that depend on her.
“I also worry about the health of my ageing parents and my son as he navigates through early adulthood. But I am at the same time conscious of the need to just be and remember that the fate of the whole world does not depend on me. I mean, after I have done everything I can to the best of my ability in any given situation, all I can do is simply stand, and let God handle the rest.” she concludes.
