Managing director of LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, speaks to CNN’s ‘Passion to Portfolio’ on breaking the glass ceiling in Nigeria 

In an interview with CNN International’s ‘Passion to Portfolio’, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, the managing director of LADOL, spoke on being a disruptor in one of Nigeria’s most competitive sectors and the growth of the company under her leadership.

Jadesimi began running the oil and gas servicing company in 2009, and now manages more than 1000 employees just off the coast of Lagos. Since LADOL was founded in 2001, the company has attracted more than $500 million in investments and is looking to expand into different sectors.

Before joining the family business, Jadesimi received a medical degree from Oxford University, working as an investment banker before attending Stanford Business School, where she would earn an MBA.

Explaining to ‘Passion to Portfolio’ why she returned to Nigeria, Jadesimi says: “I decided to move back to Nigeria after business school because I hadn’t really lived here since I was five years old. At the same time, I knew that I have enough education and experience that I could really add value in the market here. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, ironically the one thing that I was sure I didn’t want to do was work in oil and gas. When I got involved with LADOL I realised that’s what I have been missing.”

Under her leadership, the company is now planning to enter new sectors such as car manufacturing and education, and Jadesimi hopes her work can help encourage more women to join the industry.

Jadesimi tells CNN: “As a woman working in a male dominated industry, there have been lots of challenges… If you want to be successful in life, do what you love, work hard at it and lastly find a way to integrate it into your life because the journey of achieving your business goal is also the journey of your life.”