By Ifeoma Ejiofor
Some people are born great while some others achieve greatness, Dr Theo Okeke (Okunenyeife Nnewi) is certainly a combination of both.
Okunenyeife Nnewi as his title suggests is a light that is shining home and abroad, a man of few words but always very positively impactful to the people in his environment.
In Nigeria, many foundations spring up for political exigencies and immediately after the elections, such foundations go into limbo until another election time.
But, Dr Theo Okeke, a child of God in obedience to the doctrine of Jesus Christ has continuously put smiles on the faces of the less privileged, many of whom have become not just useful to themselves but also to their families and communities.
Okunenyeife Nnewi’s goodwill is not just restricted to the poor in the society, his community is wearing a new and decent look because of his constant interventions.
Dr Okeke is a personality to be celebrated, he has certainly earned all the accolades coming his way because he is a very GOOD man. Many people have and are still testifying to this fact.
Ordinarily, the intimidating Curriculum Vitae (CV) of Dr Theo Okeke is enough for him to be an arrogant and unapproachable person but the cool headedness noticed in the passionate and compassionate philanthropist is unprecedented.
His doors are always open to all and sundry who throng his residence home and abroad in search of solution to their problems and challenges, of course he makes sure that he wipes tears off the faces of persons who cry to him for help no matter their status in the society.
At a time, certain naysayers were thinking that the philanthropic gesture of Okunenyeife Nnewi was either a fluke or politically motivated but the consistency of the compassionate philanthropist over the years has proven that in the vein of Dr Theo Okeke flows a milk of human kindness which is not common to mere men.
Come to think of it, it is the personalities like Dr Okeke that should be considered for political appointments and responsibilities, since he has been using his personal resources to alleviate the suffering of the downtrodden, he would really know how to effectively channel the resources of the nation for common good.
Dr Theo Okeke(FNSE, PEng, PMP) is an established Harvard Business School trained Senior Management Executive, a Fellow in the Engineering Profession and Technical/Project Management Advisor with over 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry.
His experience spans Nigeria, Europe, Middle East, South America, US, and Canada. He started his career as a young Engineer with Shell in Nigeria where he worked in various Engineering capacities that included Wellsite Petroleum Engineer, Operations and Facilities Engineer before he was nominated to proceed on cross posting to The Netherlands in Europe based on his outstanding performance.
While in The Netherlands, he worked for Netherlands Aaardolie Maatchappij B. V. (NAM) as Senior Operations and Facilities Engineer responsible for some of their Offshore Assets in the North Sea, before being transferred to Shell International Exploration and Production Company (SIEP) in Rijswijk to work as the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) on one of the first FPSO projects for Shell in Africa.
He left Shell in The Netherlands to migrate to Canada in 2001 with his family. While in Canada, he joined Rio Alto Exploration Company Ltd in Calgary to work as Senior Engineer responsible for the company’s assets in Northern Alberta. He left this position to briefly work for SNC Lavalin Inc. in Calgary as Project Manager for some projects in the Middle East.
Okunenyeife Nnewi then left SNC Lavalin Inc. to join Nexen Inc. Ltd Calgary from where he was exposed to the company’s business and operations in the Middle East, South America, Europe, Nigeria, US and Canada. While with Nexen, he successfully completed a number of high profile conventional and unconventional oil and gas projects both onshore and offshore for the company as the Project Manager.
Dr Okeke also worked in various Senior Management and Advisory Positions that included Facilities Engineering Manager and Senior Technical Advisor responsible for Technical Assurance on company’s projects and new business opportunities. In 2014, he was invited to Nigeria to start up a new company that would acquire and manage oil and gas assets being divested by one of the big Independent Oil Companies (IOCs) in the country.
The compassionate and passionate philanthropist took up the challenge and saw it as an opportunity of giving back to his Fatherland given the experiences and exposure that he had acquired over the years. He joined EROTON Exploration and Production Company Ltd as the Head of the Transition team and successfully established a highly motivated and dedicated team that seamlessly took over the Full Operatorship of the oil and gas assets from the IOC in a record time.
He assumed the position of Executive Director and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the company on the completion of the Transition Period. Under his watch, production from the assets was more than tripled to over 60,000 bopd within 6 months, using only indigenous Engineers.
Dr Theo Okeke is currently the President/CEO of Purion Energy Ltd having left Eroton in 2021.Dr Theo Okeke is a Harvard Business School Alumnus and a graduate of Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program as well as The Wharton School’s Executive Development Program.
He has also attended several Senior Management Executive Trainings and Courses on Effective and Strategic Leadership and Management, Finance, Commercial, Stake Holder Engagement and Management, Conflict Resolution, Contracting and Procurement, Health, Safety, Security, Environmental Sustainability etc.
Okunenyeife Nnewi holds a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Masters and PhD Degrees in Civil Engineering with honors specializing in Project Management. He holds various certifications including PMP, PEng, FNSE etc. He has been elected to the Fellowship of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and also an active member of various professional bodies including SPE, NSE, APEGA, PMI etc. He has written technical papers especially in the areas of projects and project management.
He is an ardent promoter of stage gate and good project delivery processes to ensure proper governance and technical assurance on projects. Dr. Theo Okeke is married with kids and enjoys teaching, mentoring, reading, travelling, golfing and swimming in his spare time. He is also a Philanthropist, Community Builder and enjoys participating especially in initiatives targeted towards building more virile and diverse communities for the betterment of mankind and the environment. He was once the President of Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary (NCAC), Canada as well as Igbo Cultural Association of Calgary (ICAC).
Dr Theo Okeke’s CV is indeed very intimidating but of course he has remained cool headed inspite of his academic and professional prowess.
As stated earlier, Okunenyeife Nnewi is positively impacting his environment, his people and church as part of his community development and empowerment efforts.
He recently constructed 1Km road for his community with solid gutters on both sides of the road as well as street lights powered by Solar panels/energy. The entire Nnewi town celebrated this uncommon feat.
Okunenyeife Nnewi has over thirty university students in his scholarship scheme studying various courses in the universities.
The widows are not left out the philanthropic gesture of Dr Okeke as he empower them with various sums of money to start up something on their own. This gesture is however not limited to the widows and widowers, he has been of great assistance to men, women and young adults and children in solving various problems and challenges they encounter in life including hospital bills, school fees, life sustenance, burials etc.
At the moment, Dr Okeke is helping his community to construct a new building to serve as the Obi of Dimuzo kindred. He has also set
up a trust fund for young adults and graduates to set up something they can use to sustain themselves instead of waiting for jobs and employments that are now very elusive.
Okunenyeife Nnewi has helped his community Anglican church, the Church of Pentecost to construct and complete the new church building including the roofing, installation of doors and windows, painting of the building as well as interlocking of the compound that will be completed soon.
Sponsoring various projects, events and activities in both the church and community to forster unity and sense of belonging has become his pasttime.
Dr Theo Okeke with a heart full of gratitude to the Almighty God for his manifold blessings upon him has expressed his preparedness to do many more that noting many more projects are in the pipeline.