Education is a key factor in ensuring our business is viable and vibrant as we seek to explore even more challenging plays and extract increasing stubborn resources.  I have been fortunate enough to have received world-class training over the years and recognise the value it adds.  It would be my pleasure to act as PESGB Education and Training Director.

I became a member of the PESGB over 18 years ago, whilst studying for a MSc in Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Aberdeen, and remember volunteering to help run a PESGB short-course on Sequence Stratigraphy.  From then onwards I have benefited from society training and fieldwork when the opportunity has arisen.  Prior to Aberdeen I graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BSc in Geology.  During my early career, I honed sedimentology skills at Robertson Research and Ichron, helping to deliver training courses as part of my training. Following that I joined BG Group as a sedimentologist and developed into a Production Geologist on the Jackdaw field and now the Clair field with Shell.

Our industry remains in a challenging phase, but is perhaps preparing for the next oil price cycle, and education will play a key part of that.  PESGB training courses and field trips represent high-quality and cost-efficient opportunities to help us remain technically sharp during this time and ready for the future.   It will be my aim to maintain the level and scope of training offered by the PESGB, whilst at the same time focusing on what our industry really needs during challenging times.