Born in Motherwell, Scotland, and obtained an Honours degree in Geology from University of Glasgow, where the seeds of interest in sedimentology were sown. Took my first step on the international trail by moving south to England to enroll as a graduate student at the Sedimentology Research Laboratory at the University of Reading. I was fortunate to become part of a research group led by David Kinsman working on sabkhas of the Trucial Coast. In addition to the fascinating modern carbonate-evaporite geology, this was my first real exposure to the petroleum industry, thanks to grants from AAPG and PRF and local logistics support from Phillips Petroleum company, who ultimately became my employer.

I joined Phillips in their Denver office and began my oil patch career working the Michigan Basin, Central Rockies and North Slope regions. I later moved to Phillips head office in Bartlesville where I was a member of the Exploration Research Projects Group, serving the company's worldwide operations. As the resident carbonate authority, I became involved in studies of Chalk and Zechstein reservoirs of the N. Sea; Jurassic plays in Morocco; and was given my first introduction to SE Asia through some field work in the Philippines. I returned to Denver to initiate some development drilling in the Denver Basin before being assigned to head up the Mobil-Phillips-Chevron geology team in the Prudhoe Bay Arbitration.

A yearning for more international exposure led me to join Schlumberger as SE Asia Unit Geologist, based in Jakarta but supporting operations (mainly dipmeter and reservoir characterization) throughout SE Asia, China, India and Australia. I returned to the industry mainstream by joining Maxus Energy's newly formed Special Projects Team in Jakarta. While the name over the door kept changing: Maxus-YPF-Repsol-CNOOC, I remained there as in-house carbonate specialist, a role that was of particular importance when seconded to work with the operations team installed in Kodeco Energy following a partnership agreement with YPF.