My career started with a British cable manufacturer BICC, I started as a filing clerk and worked my way through to the commercial department doing customer complaints. It was when I was exposed to customer complaints that I became interested in sales.
One of the senior sales people at BICC was my mentor on how to approach sales, how to deal with people and it taught me a lot and as a consequence I stayed in that position for two years.
The Forties field started in 1975, I was on the estimates for that for the cable, so that got me into the oil and gas industry.
A position came up as a sales engineer in Qatar or Oman in 1982 and I was fortunate enough to be offered the position of sales engineer in Qatar, so I moved out to Qatar in 1982 and I have been associated with the Middle East ever since.
I think there is a certain mind set sometimes in the United Kingdom that if it doesn’t work between 9 and 5 then it works at 9am the following morning, whereas here in the Middle East time is very much the enemy rather than an asset.
Working in the Middle East energy industry is about relationships, the important thing is to understand the importance and value of relationships. People deal with people they do not deal with companies. Without a relationship in place with your customers you are always going to struggle.
Patience is essential in the Middle East. Have an understanding that things do not happen overnight, they take time. One has to understand that time is something that rolls on no matter what the outcome.
When I first came out to the Middle East I wasn’t told much. All they said to me was that I was going to have different working hours. We did a split shift, we did 7am until 1 o’clock and 4pm to 7pm, that was the working day. Completely different to the normal nine to five job.
I wish someone had explained the culture of the Middle East before I came out here, I think that was probably something I had to learn fairly quickly and understand how things work. Luckily my manager helped a lot with that.
In Saudi Arabia, during Ramadan, when the hours go upside down, I can remember being called to a meeting at 1am.
I arrived at this guy’s office, he is sitting there in his chair and after the introductions he wanted to talk about the UK and the two topics he wanted to talk about was Margaret Thatcher and Manchester United. At that time Thatcher was very admired by the Arab community in Saudi Arabia. It was 2am before we got around to talking about the debt I was there to talk about.
Recognition of in-country value is one of the big changes I have seen in the Middle East oil and gas industry. I think when I first came into the industry it was very much if it is British manufactured it is good, here is the contract. Now companies are starting to say ‘what can you bring to this country, how can you add some value into what we are doing to help us develop further?’.
My favourite Middle Eastern country to work in is definitely the UAE without a doubt. I have seen it grow, it has had a fantastic infrastructure, it is very easy and is not as challenging as let say Saudi Arabia.
To get a driving license in Saudi Arabia one had to give a pint of blood and I am not the best blood donor. It is far more civilized here in the UAE. The UAE has grown tremendously since I arrived here in 1983.
I would say the best things about the UAE is the infrastructure, it is the ease of doing business, the ease of getting around and being able to set your own agenda without any interference.
I met and married my wife in Riyadh, she was a nursery nurse at a military hospital and we met through a mutual friend, who challenged me to a game of squash. It was a great time and we are still here today.
My daughter was born in Leeds, she was just over two when we came to the UAE and she has been educated here and is at university in west London now studying music and it has been a great journey.
The Energy Industries Council has been going 10 years here in Dubai. I started with them in 2004. The membership when we started was 358 companies, with 50 companies having operations in the Middle East, today we are over 700, with 350 active locally.
