Meet the Timorese lawyer chasing Australian wind licences for Norway
A former refugee carried out of East Timor on her mother’s back has returned to Australia as country head of Norwegian energy giant Equinor to chase offshore wind licences.
At just six months old, energy executive Niny Borges was carried on her mother’s back across mountains separating Timor-Leste from the Indonesian province of West Timor.
It was September 1975. The family of 10 were fleeing the civil war that erupted in Timor-Leste after the Portuguese colonisers withdrew in 1975. Local political party Fretilin prevailed in the struggle, governed for a few months, and then Indonesia marched in.
