ADNOC’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives

• Background
• ADNOC and gender diversity
• ADNOC’s women leaders
• ADNOC’s Pathway20 participants
• ADNOC and Emiratisation
• Inclusivity at ADNOC
• Download ADNOC’s DEI initiatives (PDF)

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.

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”.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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”.

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.

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”.

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 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 role: Executive Vice President, ADNOC Downstream Business Management

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.

ADNOC role: 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.

ADNOC role: 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 role: Vice President, Planning & Performance, ADNOC Global Trading

Board positions: Director, ADNOC Reinsurance Joined Pathway20: 2020

ADNOC role: Vice President, Pressure Pumping, ADNOC Drilling

Board positions: Former director, Al Dhafra Petroleum Joined Pathway20: 2020

ADNOC role: Senior Vice President, Onshore Development, ADNOC Group

Board positions: Director, ADNOC Gas Processing Joined Pathway20: 2021

ADNOC role: Senior Vice President, Shared Services, ADNOC Group

Board positions: Director, Al Dhafra Petroleum Joined Pathway20: 2021