Liberia: Mrs. Marie Urey Browne, Visionary Liberian Corporate Leader

She hails from rural Careysburg, Montserrado County, the daughter of a hard working farm woman and an eminent citizen of Careysburg, Robert D. Urey, a judge and father of many outstanding daughters, including Marie. 

His eldest daughter is the beautiful famous Kate Urey, who married Mr. Albert White, former Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County, who later became Chairman of the National Elections Commission, R.L.

Mrs. Marie Urey Coleman Browne, wife of Mr. Daniel Browne, son of the late Episcopal Archbishop George D. Browne, is a well-educated young Liberian woman, who holds a Master’s degree.  President George Weah recently appointed her Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).  Since her appointment, she has run the oil company with a high degree of efficiency and dedication.

Last week, Mrs. Urey Browne as LPRC MD, raised the status of several LPRC employees when she decided to grant them permanent status as full-time employees of the corporation.  

According to the April 7 edition of Hot Pepper newspaper, this move by Managing Director Urey Browne was greeted with jubilation by her overjoyed employees, who joyfully chanted, “Go, Marie, go!”

The LPRC workers praised Managing Director Coleman for what they called “the unprecedented step toward fostering Pillar Two of the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PPAP), which emphasizes economy and job creation.”

The representative of the LPRC Workers Union, Raja Nimley, hailed the MD’s decision as “the beginning of a new dawn at LPRC, a  state-owned enterprise. 

According to him, “Over 300 contractors, who are now full time employees, and their families and friends will have something to remember under the Coleman-Urey leadership at LPRC.”  He called on other heads of government agencies to emulate the example of Managing Director Urey Coleman Browne.

The Daily Observer highly commends Madam Marie Urey Coleman Browne for this visionary initiative, which has positively impacted her employees and given them reason to rejoice and be thankful.  We pray that the LPRC MD will ensure that her bold and commendable initiative will be sustained and bear fruit, setting a noble example for all other corporations in the public sector.

We pray also that all of the LPRC employees will demonstrate deep appreciation for their Managing Director’s initiative by working assiduously and very hard in faithfully and diligently executing their assignments for the uplift and ultimate great success of LPRC.

We would like at this juncture in this Editorial to recall other eminent women from Careysburg District who have made their marks of distinction on the national and international scenes.  We remember Mrs. July Freeman Barclay, sister of the great Benjamin Green Freeman, who became one of the first Liberian female judges; her three  daughters who also rose to eminence.  

The eldest is Mrs. Cora Ann Phelps Okorodudu who, upon her graduation as dux at Monrovia’s St. Teresa’s Convent in 1951, made a memorable expression.  She declared, “Today, I am no longer a mere school girl, but a responsible woman in the Republic.” Cora Ann went on to take BSc degree in Education from Cuttington College and Divinity School (now Cuttington University) in Suacoco, Liberia, and the PhD in Education from Harvard University, where she met and married a Nigerian intellectual and became the mother of several children.  She became an eminent educator in the USA, especially the State of New Jersey.  Her younger sister, Dr. Juliette Phelps Maxwell, also a St. Teresa’s Convent and Cuttington graduate, Julia Freeman Barclay’s third daughter, became a surgeon.

Cora Ann and Juliette’s middle sister Margie became Mrs. George Henries, wife of a former Supreme Court of Liberia Associate Justice.

Today, this highly intelligent young woman from the same Careysburg District in Montserrado County, Marie Urey Coleman Browne, has also blazed the national scene.  As one of the very few women heading a public corporation in Liberia, Marie Urey Coleman Browne is making her own mark.

We pray that the action of Managing Director Urey Coleman will be sustainable, meaning that each and every one of those who are benefitting from her administrative decisions will do everything in their power to justify her bold decisions by working hardest in their respective portfolios to raise the efficiency and productivity levels of LPRC.

Let it never be said that these promotions were an end in themselves. Let it rather be said and realized that this bold move by Managing Director Marie Urey Coleman Browne will redound to the further development, dynamism and enviable success of LPRC.

Each and every one of those who have received promotions and the entire staff of LPRC must work diligently and assiduously not only in justifying the confidence reposed in themselves, but in doing everything possible in ensuring that the LPRC becomes an enviable  success story in Liberia and Africa.

By success story we mean that LPRC will go on and become the best performing public corporation in Liberia and one of the best on the continent.

How does LPRC do this? By ensuring that Liberia is regularly and sufficiently supplied with petroleum to keep the engines of the economy efficiently running and keeping the Republic of Liberia moving forward ever, backward never.