Eng. Dereje Walelign

Eng. Dereje Walelign is Managing Director of Lydetco PLC, a company engaged in Renewable energy; Managing Director of Abeshakana Trade & Industry PLC, a company engaged in extraction of essential oils & currently president of the Ethiopia Solar Energy Association. Engineer Dereje Walelign has earned his BSC degree in Civil Engineering from Addis Ababa University, Faculty of Technology in 1982.

He started his career in the former Ethiopian Building Construction where he was assigned to work as Site Engineer for the construction of Muger Cement Enterprise plants and later as Project Manager for the construction of Jimma Health Science Institute complex. Notably, whilst Jimma Health Institute was behind schedule to accept students, Dereje had showed his excellence and competence by completing most of the construction works within one year following which he was promoted as Project Manager. Engineer Dereje joined Shell Ethiopia Limited in 1987 and has worked for the company for over 12 years by assuming various engineering roles. Whilst with Shell, he has worked as Project engineer, Equipment engineer, Operations Assistant for Assab installation until he became Engineering Manager for Shell Ethiopia, Shell Eritrea and Shell Djibouti.

In his role as Project Engineer, Dereje was responsible for civil works in the depots and the design and construction of all service stations countrywide. He has also demonstrated his skill in the construction and erection of a conveyor belt system for gas cylinders including filling machinery, LPG pumps, etc. Working as Operation Assistant, he was responsible for the overall fuel product loading from Shell installation in Assab to allover Ethiopia. His work in Assab included the certification of Jet fuel for quality, which involved safety of all airplanes fuelling in any Ethiopian Airport and unloading of marine vessels loaded with petroleum products, which greatly enhanced his knowledge of dealing with foreign fuel transportation.

In his role as Retail Engineer, Engineer Dereje and his team have executed Shell’s latest Retail Visual Identity in Ethiopia and were awarded for efficient and timely completion of the project. Among others, highlights of his contribution as Engineering Manager included upgrading of Retail Network in Djibouti, upgrading of bulk bitumen storage tank and modification of various works in Djibouti Depot and various improvement works in Assab Installation.