Who is Austen Oniwon?

The new Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) group managing director is a low-profile Harvard and Oxford-educated engineer from the central Kogi state, who joined NNPC in 1977 and became Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company’s head of planning in 1987. Oniwon then served as technical assistant to the downstream department’s group executive director (1988-91), before serving as head of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company’s Engineering and Technical Services Department (ETSD) in 1991-92. Following this, Oniwon was appointed head of NNPC’s New Business Development, Corporate Planning and Development Division, until moving to become head of ETSD at Port Harcourt Refinery (1993-99).