Yekepa, Nimba County – ArcelorMittal Liberia has reinforced its strong commitment to human capacity development. Kleber Silva, Global Chief Executive Officer for Mining at Arcelor Mittal Group, characterizing leadership investment as a crucial pillar of operational excellence and sustainable growth.
Silva made the remarks at the Yekepa, Nimba County, graduation celebration for over fifteen ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) staff members who had successfully finished the Succeed One Leadership Program. After completing the curriculum offered by ArcelorMittal University in partnership with Duke Corporate Education, ArcelorMittal Liberia certified and graduated the personnel.
Glaobal CEO for Mining Kleber: “I am really happy to be here and participate in the ceremony. We see the feeling, we see the development and this important for all of us because what we are is what we learned. As you are aware, we have important plans for this operation. Now we are done with the MDA we can continue to grow, we can continue to support and we can continue to transformed Liberia.”
“The most precious thing we have in our lives is the ability to grow, to transform yourselves by learning. Existence is a prerequisite that we will always be evolving” he said as he congratulated the graduates. The in-person training, which was arranged in collaboration with Duke University, was designed to help AML employees become more capable leaders, especially when it came to managing the company’s changing workplace.
The training gave participants useful tools to address issues inside AML’s operational environment while emphasizing self-awareness, productive teamwork, and building a better internal community. Employees from all departments came together as a result of the program, which created a vibrant environment for leadership development, shared learning, and interaction with contemporary workplace realities.
Michiel Van Der Merwe, the chief executive officer of Arcelor Mittal Liberia, also spoke at the occasion, congratulating the graduates and urging them to use the leadership abilities and information they had gained in their day-to-day duties.
“In fact, seeing some of you after the brief time I’ve been here has warmed my heart to see how far we’ve come from where we were and how rapidly we’ve matured. The workforce’s warmth and maturity, in my opinion, are just remarkable. Congratulations to all of you; it’s truly incredible to watch you all go through this training. It’s amazing what each of you is doing,” the CEO noted.
As ArcelorMittal Liberia grows and changes within Liberia’s mining industry, he emphasized the increasing significance of leadership at all organizational levels. The graduates thanked ArcelorMittal Liberia for giving them access to excellent professional development opportunities that will increase their efficacy.
The program, according to the participants, helped them change their perspective “from authority to presence, and from managing tasks to mobilizing people” by enabling them to differentiate between technical issues and adaptive challenges.
They also noted that the leadership framework acquired through the program is not only theoretical but crucial to ArcelorMittal’s operations at a time when the company is navigating significant transitions including decarbonization, digitization, and cultural transformation.
Through consistent investment in technical training and capacity building, ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) has long shown a quantifiable commitment to the development of the Liberian workforce. With a focus on skills transfer and localization, AML has put in place structured training programs for operators, technicians, engineers, safety specialists, and administrative staff.
These programs include engineering growth routes, safety certification programs, apprenticeship schemes, training for heavy equipment operation, and opportunities for high-performing Liberian employees to gain overseas experience.
AML has improved Liberians’ technical proficiency, productivity, and employability in the mining industry through collaborations with vocational schools and internal competency-based training programs. This method demonstrates a purposeful business strategy to lessen dependency on foreign workers, develop long-term domestic knowledge, and establish a steady supply of competent Liberian workers who can support ongoing operations and future growth stages.
