Dr. Cecilia Aqua-Umoren is an accomplished Legal Practitioner, with over 30 years experience.

She was the principal/founding partner of the law firm Cecilia Okafo& Associates (now Sapphire Partners), a full service corporate and litigation firm, where she gained a wealth of experience in international transactions and local legal practice. The firm represented many foreign companies in a range of matters both legal and commercial and advised them on various areas of law practice including contractual, regulatory and policy issues.

Mrs. Aqua-Umoren is one of the pioneer legal practitioners of telecommunications in Nigeria. She acted as external solicitor to Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and represented NITEL in its first major telecommunications Joint Venture, Mobile Telecommunications System (MTS) where she was eventually appointed Company Secretary. She also served on the Federal Governments’ Ministerial Committee to implement the Open Skies Agreement.

She was part of the group of professionals that set up Emerald Energy Resources Limited, an indigenous Oil and Gas Exploration and Production company where she took up employment in 2001 as a foundation Executive Director after the company was awarded an oil block through open competitive bidding in 2000.

Mrs. Aqua-Umoren has a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) Degree from the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, BL from the Nigeria Law School, Lagos and a Masters in Law (LL.M) Degree from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA. In addition to Emerald Energy Resources Limited, she sits on the Board of Directors of Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Millenium Oil and Gas Limited, Ventures and Trusts Limited and SuperGeeks Limited.

She has attended several executive and managerial courses and she is an alumnus of Havard Business School’s Women’s Leadership Forum. She is involved with several charity organizations and is a Past President of International Women’s Society.