Women in Tanks: Pearl Madondo

Growing up in a rural village where access to transportation, healthcare and fuel was often a challenge, VTTI’s terminal manager Pearl Madondo saw firsthand how essential reliable fuel supply is to everyday life. These experiences shaped her decision to pursue a career in storage terminal operations, where she helps ensure the safe and efficient storage and distribution of fuel, keeping communities connected and businesses running Terminal manager, Pearl Madondo, discovered the tank storage industry through her chemical engineering background, but her reasons for entering the industry were rooted in her personal history, rather than the academic. ‘I understand, on a very personal level, what energy access and reliability mean to people’s lives,’ Madondo explains. ‘Growing up in a rural village with limited transport and distant medical facilities, I saw early on how fragile systems can be. That reality became deeply personal when I lost my mother. From that moment, energy stopped being an abstract concept for me. It became a matter of life, dignity and access.’ For Madondo, that experience made the consequences of energy access, fuel availability and logistics...