President’s Page- Stephen Pickering

What do the EAGE annual technical conference, the Thames, Captain James Cook and the Executive Director of the PESGB have in common? Well, the Annual meeting of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers takes place this month at the Excel conference centre in London Docklands, and I am very pleased that we, the PESGB, as a host nation petroleum geoscience society, have been invited to participate by the EAGE committee. The PESGB will host for one day, 12th June, a North Sea Special Conference session. At the time of writing we have a great programme and great speakers so I hope to see you all there. Details of the programme are to be found in the newsletter. As an added incentive for PESGB members to attend the
conference there are special discounts on entry for PESGB members who are not also EAGE members. I hope to see you all there!
The Excel Centre where the explorers of the 21st Century will gather is just a few hundred yards (sorry metres!) down the Thames from Wapping. It was from Wapping that in 1768 another great explorer, my childhood hero Captain James Cook, embarked in the Endeavour on his first circum-navigation of the globe, almost 240 years ago! Those of you who regularly read the President’s page will know of my affection for quotations.
Well I could only find one quotation attributed to Cook, and it reads: “Ambition leads me not only farther than any man has been before, but as far as I think it is possible for man to go”. As an explorer Cook excelled, he certainly went as far as it was possible to go in his day. So how about the Executive Director of the PESGB, Gail Williamson? As most of you will be aware this month is a sad one for the Society, Gail Williamson our Executive Director, is retiring to spend more time with her young family. Like James Cook she is also an explorer having earlier in her career been a petrophysicist, but more important like Cook she has excelled as Executive Director of the Society. Gail joined the Society in 2000 at a time of some turmoil, and with the assistance of her able team Julie, Jennie and Marian, she steadied the ship and navigated the Society out of the storm for which we are all most grateful. Our Society has flourished in the last seven years under her leadership, and she has contributed more to its success than any of the eight Presidents during her tenure. To paraphrase Cook, Gail has lead the Society farther than it has been before, she leaves our Society prosperous and stable, and for this we should be eternally grateful.
I hope you will all join me and wish Gail and her family all our very best wishes for a happy and prosperous future. She deserves all your congratulations on a job well done!