Only female executive resigns
The only female senior manager within PNG Power’s Executive Management Team has retired.
Linda Maru officially retired on Thursday March 24 under her last post as the Company and Board Secretary.
Mrs Maru together with then Acting CEO, John Yanis and General Manager Corporate Services, Kalip Salo left the company at the same time.
She started her career as a Legal Officer with then Electricity Commission (ELCOM) on July 5, 1999.
During the transition of ELCOM to PPL in 2002, new positions were created and she was appointed Principal Legal Officer. In 2007, Mrs Maru was promoted to Manager Legal Services.
She recalls being amongst several other women colleagues who also took up management positions during that period for the first time within the organisation.
“I can recall then, that was a time when we women were given the challenges of being in the management position, something which was heavily dominated by men then,” Ms Maru recalls.
After four (4) years as Manager Legal Services, a restructure took place again within PPL, and she was offered the head of a business unit role, as the General Counsel in 2011.
That was then, that she broke the ranks into being the first female manager within the Executive Management Team of PPL. During that period, she was also given an additional role, as PPL’s Public Officer.
But Mrs Maru’s appointment as General Counsel was short lived, when the incumbent Board Secretary resigned in 2013. She relinquished the position of General Counsel and was promoted as the Board and Company secretary in 2013.
She held the positions of PPL Board and Company Secretary, as well as PPL’s Public Officer till her retirement.
Asked of her memorable moments with ELCOM/PPL, she recalls the ELCOM days when the company was facing huge financial difficulties, and as a Legal Officer back then, she could not attend to the company’s court cases in the outside centres.
“It’s only the Engineers who have the opportunities to visit outside centres to make sure power supplies to our customers were maintained. For me and other admin staff, we could not, so the only choice I had was to write up all the legal challenges and send them off to Centre Managers to act as the company lawyers in the court room,” she recalls.
She said that Centre Managers would call her up and say; “Mrs Maru, we won.”
“I felt so happy that time even though it was difficult back then but most importantly I was happy for them as we were all fond of the company and always ensured the company’s image and reputation was maintained,” said Mrs Maru.
Transformer had the opportunity to speak to Mrs Maru as she was in the office to finalize some handover tasks before she headed home.
As she puts it in her own words; “It’s time for me to detox all work related stresses, time to take it easy and enjoy life outside my busy office.”
We bid farewell and all the best to Mrs Maru in her retirement. She served PPL for 17 years.
