Jeanette Forbes, founder of PCL Group, tells the story of how she started her career in oil and gas and wound up in the CEO chair of her own IT company
Whilst I was working at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, the Piper Alpha tragedy occurred and I was one of the women who took the first call from the emergency services to say that there has been a rig in the North Sea that went up in flames. I don’t know what it was but from that day on I wanted to work in oil and gas.
I started from the bottom of the tree. In my first job I was a receptionist for an oil and gas company called Pentex in Aberdeen. Then I started to pick up on the knowledge of everything to do with oil and gas. At that time there was a great focus on coiled tubing and horizontal drilling. I was very interested in how these technologies were going to evolve.
Someone told me I should go and do a degree in IT because I had a knack for fixing things and working out these problems in a very logical mind set. I studied my computer degree in the evenings because I had a family and husband to support. I ended up working in IT.
There was a downturn in oil and gas at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000. In Aberdeen we had seen many upturns and downturns because that’s the nature of this field. At the time I was running a fibre optic division that was made redundant. For three months I wondered what I was going to do.
In my career path many people said I should be running my own business but it’s a huge risk. I had a family and a mortgage and I had to put the food on the table at the time. I decided that if I didn’t try I would never know. So on 3rd of March 2000 I incorporated PCL Group.
My company must have been only two-years-old when I was given a proposal from Sheikh Maktoum to do an upgrade work for a yacht. We were invited to come over to Abu Dhabi. As a female running my own business, I had to take one of my male members of staff because at the time women in business were not recognised.
During the meeting there was no eye contact. In fact I might as well have been invisible. There was no conversation aimed towards me. I was just to sit there and listen to what was being said whilst my employee ran the conversation and virtually did exactly what I would do.
I remember working in a control room on a rig and I asked “Where’s the sign for the ladies toilets?” Everybody burst out laughing because there was no ladies toilets. We were such a rarity that men offshore couldn’t comprehend the fact that there was a woman doing the same kind of job as them.
I have their respect now and those barriers have come down, which is a great transitional change for the sector.
It’s incredibly important that women are recognised. I always think that we need more role models to advocate working in oil and gas; that it is a choice and it is not only for the privileged. My view is that women are growing the economy. We are an untapped resource.
The industry is always changing. Keeping up with technology is very difficult these days because it changes at such a fast pace. However, I firmly believe that global economies and connectivity through IT have all opened up the world to a different way of working.
