CHARACTER BUILDING
"I was young and I needed the money." Armien Kok tells me, unabashed. She continues: "Shell were looking for someone to help in the office, and within five minutes of the interview they said: "Okay, you can start tomorrow."
Armien, who now runs her own company, Marine Bunkering, was 16 when she joined Shell, a company she would stay with for the next ten years. Moving into the bitumen department and then the bunkering department, Armien by her own admission found it tough at first 'as the only woman in Holland in the bunker industry'.
TOUGH AT FIRST
But for Armien the toughest hurdle she had to climb has not been fighting male prejudice, but developing the character to succeed. It was not, she continues, that a woman has to work twice as hard to be recognized, but the need to work equally as hard. She says candidly: "I had to work as hard as a man or I was finished."
Armien soon became interested in broking and trading, and took a new job with one of the world's leading energy brokers, Starsupply Petroleum Europe. From there, she gained her enthusiasm for the barge market, which led to the establishment of her own company, Marine Bunkering.
For Armien, hard work and a character that has developed good relationships have been the key to her success, and she disagrees with that to the view that women have to overcome barriers that men in the industry never encounter.
GOOD RELATIONSHIPS.
If there is a problem between my customers/suppliers, then I will try to solve it on the phone and will drive to them as everything is in close reach." she says. "This is one of the reasons for focusing upon the ARA/German broker market.
"The advantage of knowing people and having a good relationship with people is very important - you cannot afford to lose the personal contact."
Shen asked whether she has a mutual respect or bond with other women in the bunker industry, Armien responds without a hint of irony: "Of course, why not? I have the same for men." For Armien, there are no barriers preventing women succeeeding apart from those they possess themselves.