Aimilia Evdaimon

Quality Manager in Digital Solutions

Aimilia joined DNV nine years ago and has over 20 years of experience with management systems focusing on risk management and process optimisation from different industries. Now, she is the Quality Manager for Digital Solutions.

Growing up in Athens, Aimilia’ s favourite place in Greece is Santorini. That is where she spent the summers of her youth.

“My father and his family are from Santorini and we were fortunate to spend three months every summer on the island. I was harvesting wine grapes and helped in producing the family’s wine. If you ask me what my dream is, I will probably answer, being a wine producer in Santorini,” she laughs.

Even though the Norwegian climate is not quite alike Greece’s, Aimilia loves the nature and the closeness to the water. “We recently bought a sailing boat and I can’t wait to go on a trip with my family,” she says. Challenges in a male-dominated maritime industry Aimilia started her career in the maritime industry back in 1998 in a support function in the technical department at Sea World Management and Trading Inc., helping to develop a maintenance system and spares inventory.

“The maritime industry was known for its low number of female workers. Blame it on the traditional mind set of the ‘male dominated’ industry or the lack of awareness. But I was really determined to show that a woman can have a successful career in that domain as well. That was my main struggle and bet during that time,” explains Aimilia.

Amilia has a strong personal connection to DNV’s purpose of safeguarding life, property, and the environment.

… Blame it on the traditional mind set of the ‘male dominated’ industry or the lack of awareness. But I was really determined to show that a woman can have a successful career in that domain as well. …

After a short period, she moved to the safety department where she eventually became the Head of Safety and Quality for a bulk carrier fleet.

“When I was the only female on board on a tanker ship, I remember that the pilot of the ship thought that I was the wife of someone. When I told him that I was the ship superintendent, he answered that a woman on board would bring bad luck,” remembers Aimilia.

Aimilia is not only a strong advocate of gender equality, she has also a strong personal connection to DNV’s purpose of safeguarding life, property, and the environment.

“I am strongly motivated by the expertise and diversity of people we have in our organisation. Working for a company with such a strong purpose makes me proud, not least because making the world a better place for my son is my ambition.”

JOURNEY IN DNV

In 2012, Aimilia moved to Norway and landed a job in DNV as a Senior Engineer in business area Maritime. In 2017, she earned a master’s degree in Shipping and Logistics from Middlesex University with distinction. Recently, she became Quality Manager of Digital Solutions and works closely with the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS QUALITY?

“Quality is often considered as identical to ‘product conformance’ but it is so much more than this. Quality is about remaining true to our customers, to our promise, from the beginning to the end. There are many quality dimensions such as product quality, business quality and organisational quality,” she explains.

Aimilia’ s goal is to drive a culture of continuous improvement and customer centricity ensuring high standards of quality of all dimensions in collaboration with the Product Line Directors and ELT.

“The challenge is to bring the quality function as close to the business as we can. Our new way of working helps us to meet the increasing pace of market changes and needs while being able to maintain a high level of quality,” she says.

Looking back, Aimilia has not only distinguished herself in a male-dominated industry, she has also shown that gender should not matter. •