David Currie's 40-Year Secret: How Trust Saved a Failing Plant and Works Every Time

In this episode of Taproom Talks Kenny is joined by David Currie, Chairman of Proserv. David, a veteran of the energy sector with over 40 years of experience, shares his career journey—from attending 14 different schools as a Royal Navy child to spending 29 years at FMC and holding CEO roles at Aker and JDR before becoming Chairman of ProServ. 

He discusses the biggest global change he has witnessed in the industry, highlighting the shift toward improved safety and talent development.

The conversation offers a frank assessment of the challenges currently facing the Aberdeen energy sector, arguing that uncertainty over future government policy, rather than current taxation, is driving good companies and the essential supply chain to move overseas. David stresses the need for political consensus and a 10-year stable "runway" for investment. 

He also explores the current state of energy transition, expressing concern that the UK is "miles behind" in offshore wind infrastructure like the grid, which is leading companies to hand back field awards due to high connection costs. 

Finally, David shares his leadership philosophy, which centers on the powerful results achieved when leaders trust and enable their teams to succeed, exemplified by the story of turning around a struggling French plant at FMC

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

This is a global energy network podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hi, today we're joined by David Curry, Chairman of ProServe. David, can you just share who you are and what did you do?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Yeah, I'm I'm chairman at ProServe. They're a Aberdeen headquartered company, Core Technologies Control Systems. Facilities in the States, Middle East, here, Asia. Good company, good people. I've been there. Davis, the CEO, would probably say too long. No, I've been there. Gosh, you know, I came in as CEO, then group CEO, then chairman. It's got to be five or six years now. Yeah. But good company, good, good technology, good people, good, good attitude to customers. Yeah. In greating other people. So it's it's good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

And what and what about yourself? So Mariah, I remember speaking to you, you said your father was in the military. Yeah, he was. So you did a bit of travelling.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

He was uh my father was in the Royal Navy. So when I was young, we moved every two, three years. So I went to uh I think the total was 14 different schools.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Wow. Just constant forward. And where was that? All over Europe?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

All over no all over UK and Ireland.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

So some years you had to work hard at school and some years you didn't. Did you move from the English system to the Scottish system?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

So you were ahead or you were higher.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

So yeah, it was um it's interesting because through my career I've lived in a lot of different places. Yeah. And I've never found obviously never found moving a problem. Yeah. So it's been easy. Part of your life from air on plain or moving. Yeah, I think that's what it is, right? It's just the way you were I was brought up, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

So yeah, good. Then you didn't you've done uh degrees in HR in law.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

I did. Did a law degree in Aberdeen, yeah. Um got offered a uh a legal apprenticeship in Edinburgh, but then um like most university students was doing offshore stuff too. Yeah. Um and then a guy who I met um through what was it through, can't remember. Political dude. Um I've forgotten his name, which is Horrible Forbes, I think the surname. He said, Well, why don't why don't you use Lord of you to do something else if you don't want to do a I said like what? I said like we'll do a postgraduate date. Ah, okay. So I did a postgrad degree in human resources at Robert Burns. Yeah. That's Aberdeen for four or five years.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

So was that was that what kind of made you aware of the energy sector?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Oh yeah, coming I came to Aberdeen in 73 to go to university, and by 74 we were all going offshore nowadays.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

So you were aware of it. You were you it was just well, you know, at that time it was like boop.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

And what was your first job then in the energy sector?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Offshore as a student. Yeah. Um, probably best not to say, right? That was the days when I this is true, you know. A friend of mine who played football for uh Nairn County student said, What are you doing in the summer? So I'd probably go home, right? Oh, let's go, let's go offshore. I did it last year. It's great. Oh, okay. So we go down to a wee room by the old bank down at the harbour. We sit in the room and the guy goes, Right, when I put my hand up, put your hand up. Well, when I put my hand up, put your hand up. This guy comes in and he shouts words I don't understand, and Dougie goes, So I go. Next thing I know, we're off. No, no, nothing. No checks, no names. Very different, just a national insurance number. That was it. No training, no nothing.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

And what were you doing?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Roused about.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah. He went once as a helicopter mechanic. Right. He said it's great until a helicopter busts, then they find out you're not, and you have to come home. It was weird. Um but within three weeks you earned the tax limit, so you just kick off after three weeks. Yeah. So that was my first sort of experience of it. Um like most students, I guess, back then.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Yeah. And then you joined FMC, you were there for almost 30 years.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I had a job for four years with a company pre-fMC. Yeah. Um, and then FMC had a plant here in Scotland with about 120 people, somewhere like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

And they had problems because it was unionized and it and it wasn't great. They made surface cap, small plant in Dunfrill. And I got headhunted to join them as the HR manager. So that's how I came at the FMC. Yeah. Um, stayed with them for 29 years. Great company. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

And they were everywhere. So from Dunfermline, Houston.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

I lived in Dunferlin, Houston, Pennsylvania, France, Germany, Russia. Yeah, all over. Yeah. If you did something well, they gave you something else that you're going to do.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

It just kept moving. Yeah, you just kept going. So I I don't know, 30, 40, 40 plus years in the energy sector?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah, I went ther nearly 30 with FMC, then Acker.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Then uh JDR, CO at JDR.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

And then ProServe.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Then retired, and then ProServe came and got me, and and here I am.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

So what's your views on the market now? And what obviously you're talking about putting your hand just being told to put your hands up and then flying offshore to where we are now as an industry.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

You mean here or you mean globally?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Globally, what's the what's the biggest changes you've seen in the energy sector in that period? The way we treat people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

No question. Whether whether that's safety or whether that's talent development, or um it's just completely better now. Yeah. Um it was risky back then. Um and it wasn't, it was, it was in the early days it was for the money and not the career. Yeah. And I think we've turned that on its head, right? The energy industry worldwide can offer people such varied and good careers now. Yeah. And they're good at talent development now. They don't burn people out anymore. Used to do that a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

And what about the energy sector here in Aberdeen?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Right. That's that's a tough one, right? I mean, I i i it we've been talking about it for what, five, six years now, I suppose. Um and we're getting we're get a lot, I know a lot of people say it, right? But we're getting to the edge where it's gonna matter. Yeah. Where where uh we've got rid of the piece you could get rid of if you like, but now it's beginning to hurt. Now we're losing good people. Yeah. Good companies.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

And these companies I think there's a mix that their companies are disappearing, but also companies are just moving away. Yeah. They're just going to other places where they can get work. They've got a choice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

It's not, you know, people talk to me about meet guys from the government in London and guys from Edinburgh, and they all talk about it. And and they talk about I said, you it's not about it's not about lifting the the tax. It's not about the EPL. Yeah. It's the fear that you're going to put it back on again.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, when it comes to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Just give me stability for ten years.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Tell me what you're going to do.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Because the guys that the guys that make our industry work look at investment cycles for five to ten years. So they want a runway. It doesn't matter if it's you know, if it's here or there. Just give me the runway. Yeah. I know what I'm doing, I know how to invest. I know I'm going to see my projects to fruition. The uncertainty is the thing that worries everybody. So therefore, when people have that choice, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Faris, all over. Norway. Yeah. Why would why would you spend a die in Aberdeen? Yeah. And we can scream about it and we can shout about it, but that's the facts.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

And and then what you get is the hinterland of great companies that we've got in Aberdeen, right? Yeah. They're beginning to go like this. Yeah. And that's when it hurts. Did does it hurt that BP have reduced their headquarters? Yeah. Does it hurt that shell are downsizing and harbour have disappeared? Yeah. Yes. But when you start biting in to the supply chain and the support companies, then then then it really hurts. Yeah. Then it really bites, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah. Well, that's the majority of the jobs. You can't rebuild it. No. No, but why why would you? The margins are better elsewhere. Yeah. The job opportunities are better elsewhere. Lifestyles are better elsewhere. Why why would you then it's a tough one, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Um and the my fear is that we're losing, we're gonna lose what we're really good at, which is which is not only the capital side of it, you know, new fields and all that, it's the maintain. It's it's the life of field stuff. Yeah. Aberdeen and the hinterland of Aberdeen has built up such a reputation for life of field kit, right? Yeah, and if we lose that, we're done.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah, and we're we're already seeing more and more kit moving away from Aberdeen. So companies are moving their kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Good companies.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah, if you've got red.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

And think it's a great example, right? Really good company, right? Spy around the world, good reputation, good people. Um and they've just made the decision that's we've had enough, we've got the choices, we're making them. Yeah. And off they went.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Right, yeah. And we're seeing that more and more. We'll see Transocean have closed their office in our ear. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

And and my dilemma with it is that it's it's a political football.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

And especially now, the election coming up in we just need consensus. We need some kind of plan going forward that we can see what we're going to do and make those choices well.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

And y your CEO, when we when we spoke to Davis on this podcast, has uh his idea or thought was we should have a you know that the energy policy should be taken away from the individual government and it should be totally an ongoing.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

I totally agree. I think he's right. I think I think and and in a in a in in a in a not pleasant way, that's being proven today. Yeah. That's being proven today. Yeah, right. Just doesn't work. And then people talk about the North Sea and exploiting it and in and you've gone through cycles of maximizing oil recovery to presumption against oil to no more drilling. Yeah. Right. Yes, we've got a tremendous asset in the North Sea. But we've also we've also got uh reliability to our partners.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Now I know we're not in the EU, right? But not every European company has those reserves.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

It's not just about us.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Right? Our industry is about more than us. Yeah. It's about Europe. Look what Norway are doing, right? Um we've got it wrong, I think. We've got it wrong. Yeah. And what we aren't talking about is um enough. It's like it's it's like it'sn't a choice. Fossil fuels are green. Yeah. There's there's nothing in between. And the true path is decarbonisation, right? The true path is there's somewhere in between.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

There is more talk of that now.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah, but we're miles behind now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

And the supply chain isn't here anymore. It's moving that.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Fourteen years?

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Are we any further forward than we were 14 years ago?

SPEAKER_02 11:03

You don't think so? No.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I was on the offshore wind industry council in London. Yeah. With who was the energy minister at the time, Amber Rudd. I was the supply chain guy, those old teammates and all these boys, right? We're no further forward. And if people think we are, they're dreaming. They're dreaming.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

So how do they change that then? Or what needs to be done?

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Uh well, they need to stop looking at building a wind farm and build the infrastructure. No. The grid isn't capable.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

No. And everybody knows that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

You can't get a connection. Yeah, but they've known that for 15 years.

unknown 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

They've known that for 15 years. When when they awarded um Scotland five years ago, whenever it was. So 17 fields by 2030 add in 30 gigawatt. We we consume four. These numbers might not be entirely right, right? We consume four. The grid can handle eight, and we're adding thirty.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yeah. What's the point? But also like I was at one of the events, one of the events in Glasgow a couple of months ago, and they were talking about companies actually the the operators getting the fields back because they just can't make it work. Correct. The connection correct connection cost is too high. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

So it was 17. I think by 2030, two might be built. Two have already been handed back. The rumour is two more are going to be handed back.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

And the boys that have gone, shall be pay.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

So you you fast forward in your mind what we look like in 20 years. Yeah. Energy companies will still be energy companies. Yeah. They'll just be supplying it differently. They're not going to go away. Yeah. But they're going away now. That's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

So that's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

You've been aware of all this for a while, but you came back for Houston in 2014? Yes. What made you decide to come back to Aberdeen? Could you would you have stayed in Houston any longer?

SPEAKER_01 12:56

I could have stayed in Houston any longer. Um What made me come back was a gentleman called Owen Erickson. Okay. Who was the CEO and and chair at Acker. Okay. And he he um politely talked me into taking a job with Acker. Yeah. Really good guy. Right. He had a vision, he had a vision for his company that was different. Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

How different?

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Just different.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

In what way though? I mean you must have met loads of CEOs of big companies over the years.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

And I've been with FMC 29 years and and and I got approached to speak to them. And I I didn't want to leave FMC. I was doing okay. We're a good company.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

You were a company man.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Well, yeah, but I was but then I was beginning to be the guy that sat in the corner moaning, right? I was beginning to be the guy that was seen everything. No, no, no, it wasn't that. I just you get your own ideas, yeah. Right. And the company was changing, right? So so a friend of mine said, Hey, I need to meet this guy, and and I said, Why? He just wants to meet you. So I was over in London, I met the guy, and it turned out to be Oivan's right-hand dude. Uh and he says, You need you to come and talk to us. I said, What why did I talk to you? You're the enemy, mate. No, no, we buried you. You're the enemy, we're having nothing to do with you. No, I think it'd be really good if you came and had a chat. Do me a favour and come and have a chat. I said, I said, Yeah, right. Well, Oivan wants to meet you. I said, Well, I'm not, I'm not coming. I'm not you know, I don't want to give anybody a false impression, right? You won't be moved. I do not want to work for the competition. Yeah. We're not in the competition. What do you mean? We're not in the competition. So so I went and met two other guys who worked for Oivan and they described to me what they were gonna try and do with their company, right? Yeah. That they were gonna try and make it international. They were gonna try and build a company globally that wasn't regional. Because what had happened in their industry and a lot of big companies, FMC too, um, but they recognized it and changed it. They became regional.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

So if you ordered that cup from Aberdeen, it looked like that. If you ordered it from Houston, it looked like that.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

You couldn't get two things the same.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

So it wasn't McDonald's.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Region became powerful and changed designs, right? Yeah. So standardization was gone. Yeah. Supply chains couldn't supply everybody because it was different.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

And Acker were were And is that how FMC were? Yeah, in 20 The Grew. Yeah, I mean the journey was huge, yeah. But in 2000 about 9-10, John Grant became CEO. In 2009-10, John went to the board to tell them what the plan was for the next three, five years, and and it continued. You know, there were 29% growth every year, right? It's like, let's go like this. And the board turned round to John and said, Well, you know, this is great, John, but basically that means you've got to hire 5,000 people next year. You can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Go away and think again. And to John's credit, he did. He went away, he put a team of guys together and said, We need to restructure our company. We can't grow at the rate we want to grow with the structure we've got. Yeah. And that wasn't about people or procedures. It was about regions were powerful. Okay. Um every region had the same big projects, management, design. And it had become it had become regionalized, not global. So he restructured the whole company. Okay. So I moved from being managing director in the UK to being director of global subsidy operations in Houston.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Um, and John changed the whole company, right? Um So we we that's how FMC strove to to change it, right? Acker saw that trend coming as well, and Oyvan's plan to change it was um interesting. So so in Aberdeen, at that time, they were the second biggest employer in Aberdeen. They had nine business units. Okay. Each business unit had a management direction and management too. So there was sub-C, there was MMO, there was engineering, there was all of it. I said, Yeah, right, I get all that. So that so they described to me what they're doing. So what they wanted to do was they wanted to have uh the guy that ran Sub C worldwide, the guy that ran engineering worldwide, the guy that ran MMO worldwide. And then they wanted a regional president. And that regional president, the the guys running their business in his region would report to him and to the global guy. Yeah. So month one at Oiven's meeting, the regional president would present, and the global leaders would go, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. Okay. The next month it would be a global leader's turn, and the regional guy would go, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. Okay. So Oivan's concept was to have his management team month on month rotate and report each other and reports. Yeah. And therefore it would be global and regional at the same time, and this model would work, right? Okay. But to pull it off, what they wanted was in the UK, they had these nine businesses. His vision was to bring in somebody to run all of it and take out what he wanted out of the nine businesses and leave the rest with the nine businesses. So take out marketing, quoting, HR, finance, all of it. Anything you wanted.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

And centralise it.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

So I'm I'm I'm chatting to them, right? And I said, Well, you know, I'm not gonna I don't want to work in your subsidy part. Well, we don't want you to work, so we want you to run all of it. Yeah, what? We want you to run all of it. No, I'm no, I'm not no no, I'm not gonna do it. So anyway, I'm in Oslo by this time, right? They made me stay over. I'm meeting Oivan. We sit in a room, there's Oivan, and he's got four of his director poets, right? And we're chatting. I said, Oivan, this is I think your concept will work. Yeah, I think it's good. Just not you. Well, how do they do it in FMC? I'm not here. Oivan with the greatest respect, mate. I said, I think it'll work. If you get the right players and the right job, I think it'll work. Yeah. Well, that's good. That's good. Um, and you you know my uh eight or nine management directors in the UK, uh-huh. They're all up for it, he says to me. I said, What? They're all up for it. Yeah, they think it's a great idea that I'm gonna put somebody above them who's gonna take what he wants and leave them with the rest. And he said to me, What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

So how did they sell that to the nine MDs?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Well, he's a smart dude. He said to me, What do you think of that? I said, Well, even I used to be a managing director in the UK. Yeah. So if you'd come to me and said that, I'd probably have told you we're showing me. Yeah. So if I was you, if they are like that, I'd give them a big bonus and pat them on the back. It's really good, right? Right. So that's what you think. I said, Yeah, and obviously your guys, they've explained it all to me. Yeah, but they report to me, they just tell me what I want to hear. Yeah. In front of them, he said it, right? And I went, what do you mean by that? He said, Well, I agree with you. My managing directors in the UK are probably like you. I said, Right. So what's the point? So you know it's gonna be a war. Yeah. Probably wasn't. He said, There's only one question then. Can you win that war? And of course, you know you're an aggressive. Yeah. And you go, Yeah, of course I can win the war. Good, give him what he wants. And he got up and walked down the room.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

And that was it.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

That was it.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So you came in.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

And in that moment, in sure, this is a true story. In that moment, I wanted to work for him.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

In that moment because you knew how he was 29 years, yeah, he knew what change in his organization meant.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

He knew.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

And and how easy was that then? So you came in and you you opened that new building and uh Ooh, wasn't that fun?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yeah. All right. Um that was I have to say, I only finished it. It was half built.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Not taking credit for that.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

I'll take credit, I'll take credit for the putting green in the car park, but um they were a great team of people. They were just they were just they were just a typical example of what had happened in the oil industry. So the sub-sea business up at Dice had two or three buildings, the MMO building across the street, managing director, managing director both had management teams. Didn't know each other. Wow. Okay. Didn't know each other.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Just totally separate businesses.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Didn't social yeah, they sometimes met and chatted about what was going on and but but no concept of developing people together or sharing resources. So in effect it was easy from that point of view because people wanted that.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah, it was easy to simplify things.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Yeah, it was it was it was it was cool to do that because it helped.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Yeah. So I guess that the first thing then is taking that building that central core of all your functions that required. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

And people people if you did it right, and uh obviously we populated it with key people out of the different businesses. So it was good. But then having left FMC, some of the guys I'd dealt with before in the supply chain or private equity guys came calling and I left to join JDR as CEO. Yeah. So that was the journey out. So I would work I mean that's people taught you, you know, 29 years with FMC. Would you go work for Technip FMC? Not sure. Would they want me? Probably not. Would I work for Oyton again? In a heartbeat.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

The man had a vision.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

He was a tough dude, right? And what was your relationship with him going forward during that time? Did you see it really good? Deal with him regularly?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah, yeah, we once a month. We were face to face.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Um he was used to he was used to getting his own way.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Yeah. You would expect so. You would in the world. Oh, he's just told you that he's got a team of people that just say yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

If you argued with him, he'd argue with you. But if you calmly made your case.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

He would listen.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

He would listen. Yeah. He was a man that could okay. Yeah. Six and five's eleven. Four and five's nine. He he was He switched on.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Oh yeah, 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

It was like there was a guy in there was a guy in FMC called Bob Potter, who was the CO, number two to Kinear when he was CO, and number two to John when he was CO. And you went into a meeting with Bob with a plan or anything. You came out, it was always better.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

It was always better. And he'd he'd be a hard ass and give you a rough time or bite your head off. But you knew if you went through something with Bob, when you came out, it was better than when you went in. Yeah. Right? And that was Oil. Oil was like that. You could share stuff with him knowing that it would be better after you'd shared it. So so it's a great thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Are these are these um kind of styles or leadership tactics that you yourself try to implement for these people that you pick up from?

SPEAKER_01 23:38

You change though. Um you change your style.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Yeah. Depends on the people, the team, the environment.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Well, no, it depends on experience, right? Yeah. I I I yeah, it took me 15 years to figure out I was doing it wrong.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

What were you doing wrong?

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Do that, pick that up, move it there, do this, do that. You know, one of those I was one of those, probably. Um you go 100%, right? You're you're you're young, you're after it, yeah, and you're you don't you know You want to build something? Yeah, and you you you you I I remember a guy described, you know, you go to these um feedback things that and the guy said to me, Yeah, mate, you're a speedboat. You know what a harbour is, don't you? Yeah. Describe it. Well you go in and it's well, you come out. You said, Yeah, this is you though. There's boats in that harbour with people working on them. You just go through it in a speedbelt. Yeah. Create waves, they fall over. And I'm like, Oh, you're gonna tell me to slow down and go like no no, I'm just gonna tell you to have people buy you to pick up the bodies. I was like, I'm just like, I was like two two things happened um in my career that that changed it. One was um uh after about ten years maybe with FMC, something like that, eight, ten. I had lived in France and run the French plan. Yeah, and we had about 300 people. It was a dual-purpose plant. They made marine load and arms and made surface kit. About 200 people in marine load and arms, about 250 in in wellhood. So I was there as the boss. Yeah, and I left and did other things, and then FMC gave me a job running several international locations, one of which was France, but I wouldn't have to live there. But unknown to me, they had downsized it. Okay, so they'd taken it from 250 people down to 43. Wow. Overnight. Last in, first out, off you go. So we had that plant. We had a plant in Houston, two plants in Singapore, the all-made surface kit. So I convinced a guy called Christian Held, who was my engineer manager when I lived there, to run it for me. Okay. That was remote, I was just in the UK. He took a lot of token, right? And and he said, Yeah, you need to come over though. It's a nightmare, right? People are so I go over and we meet, we have a chat, right? We're gonna meet all the employees, 43 of them. He said, But David, you gotta it's a nightmare here, right? People think we're gonna be close, and it's just a nightmare. Okay, so we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that. So we get in front of the guys, right? And and I can speak French, right? So so we're chatting away about different things. Uh um, and it's all everyone's like, right? And and uh there's one guy in the room who's from the Marine Loading Arms side, the Union Rex. The whole place is united management, too. So at the end of at the end of the spiel, I said, any questions? And and always remember a guy at the back, Danny Gaj, his name was, who was a full shift supervisor when I was there, when I lived there. Yeah. I said, Hey Danny, how are you? He said, I'm good. I said, I'm good to see you're still here. He said, Yeah, but I'm a forklift driver now. Last in, first out. Okay. So I drive a forklift and move stuff about. All right. So what's your question, Danny? You're here at shunning, aren't you? And what why did they have that mindset? They've gone from 200 people to 40.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

They were French, they were unionized, they had plants in single born Houston, they weren't stupid.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

These were smart people. They'd been making wellheads for 50 years.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Yeah. So what was your response to Danny?

SPEAKER_01 27:11

My response was going to be the company response. No, we're doing this. And I looked at Krishna, he looked at me and I went, Yeah, I'm here to shine. We knew it. You the butcher, right? He's like, Dimmer me. And I said, Yeah, I'm here to shine it. And the place erupted, right? And I said, con dang guys, right? This is FMC we're talking about. We're putting billions in the subsidy. Right, we're building a new plant in Scotland, Houston. And you've got two competitors, Singapore. Well, we've got two surface plants in Houston. Yeah. And you. So yeah, we're going to close it. Unless Danny goes, unless what unless you beat them. What do you mean? I think you can beat them. I think you can beat them.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

So it was a pet talk?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

No, it was the truth. Yeah. I said, I think you can beat them.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

And could they?

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Oh yeah.

unknown 28:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Danny said and and another guy said, What do you mean? Well, you you've been doing this for 50 years, guys.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

You know your stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

You you know how to do this, yeah. So all we've got to do is change. Like what? Well, you've got a twin pallet machine that makes valves, right? One's being machined, one's waiting on a pallet, and it goes sort of me. So while it's doing that, why don't you assemble the valve? Well, that goes to assembling test. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

You can do it here.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

So while the customer's paying me eight hours to machine a valve, he's paying me the three hours to assemble it. You assemble it while the machine's running. Yeah. Well, you're not assembling unwrapped stuck and put it in stores. See that guy there? Design engineer, yeah, let him drive the photo. Union guy went and served. We got demarcation, we go, hey, guy. You can sit there and shut up with a mill those little magic. Oh, there'll be no jobs. Danny asked. You mean this, don't you? Yeah. We can do anything.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Instead, while you're watching the machine, don't watch the machine, paint the yellow line on the floor. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Just use the time.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Sh go.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Change the rules of the game. And they did. And it just went like that. Yeah. Went like that. Took off. That first year, the the numbers for the region were 100 million sales. And I think it was eight million of it. And the French plant did 10 million of it.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Wow. So it contributed. And six of the profit. Wow. Okay. So it made the money.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Oh yeah. And they took up. And and they I left, right? For another job. And the guy that took it over, Graham, he built it up again till I think it was topping 300 people and opened another plant next door. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

They did it. So they really turned it around.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

And that that moment with Danny and a couple other guys in the room looking at you. Tell us the truth. Yeah. Trust us to do this. And and and if you trust a team of people and enable them, take the barriers out of the way, enable them to do more than they think they can do. They'll go on with it. Works every time. Yeah. Works every time. Every time. Don't protect yourself, take the risk yourself, and let the team operate.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

And when you went to ProServe, you've been at ProServe, and then you obviously you mentioned at the start you changed job title a bit. Yeah. Um how was the change there when you brought Davis and how did that Davis was already there. Yeah, but you promoting him to the CEO, that was that was your position. And yeah. How how what was the change there and within the business or what made you decide to do that?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Um Davis Davis earned it. Davis was ready. When I when I came in as CEO, a pro serve, Davis was COO, I think. Yeah. Uh and he's a key part of that. Yeah, he always has been a key part of that business, right? And I and I asked Davis to help me. I asked him to become uh chief strategy officer. Yeah work out the future of the company, and I would help him deliver it, and I would help him become CEO. And that's the commitment I made to Davis. And yeah, that was my commitment to him. And he was ready without a question. He's probably ready before. Yeah. Just held him off with a big stick. Yeah. No, no. It's my job. No, no. No, no. Um, and we got on. We got we're different characters, but we get on. We think the same way and a lot of things. And Davis absolutely ready for it. So the change was easy. I went to the board and said, now's the time.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Let's let's I became group CEO when we split ProServe and Gilmore into two. Yeah. And then I went to the board and said, I'm getting in the way. We we need to change. Yeah. Make me part-time chairman, give it to Davis as CEO, and let's go. And that's all they did.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

It was a company going up through a bit of restructuring when you joined.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I joined, um that's what they wanted.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

They wanted somebody to throw up the jigsaw and pick the bits up that were good and put it back together, and that's what Davis and I did.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah. Yep. And then there's been an MBO.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Yes, last year. Uh yeah, last year Davis uh and uh and uh GII Finance backed it and did an MBO last year. Yeah, it's good. And how how did that come around? We convinced the previous owners, Oak Tree and KKR, that um the time had come for them to relinquish their ownership of the company and to sell the company on. Um so we started to go through a process for that as you normally do. Yeah, and during that process, uh Davis looked around and found a backer and competed with competing bids to take it over, and that's what we did.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Did that take a like a year? No. No, no, it was quite a quick process. Yeah, it was pretty straightforward.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say overall, it probably took three to six months, maybe, yeah. Something like that. Davis would probably say longer because I wasn't doing any work, right? He was working on it. Yeah, he was like, What are you doing, Davis?

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Um so yeah, so so that's how it worked. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

And then you've been involved in like ETZ and stuff like that here.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Still on the board of ETZ with with um all the all the folks that run that a good team of people, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:15

And what's in what's involved in that?

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Doing good stuff for me, yeah. Um I go to board meetings, right? So we sit on board meetings, it's it's really well run from that, as you would imagine with Sarinwood and Maggie McInley, right? It's well run from a governance point of view, um and from a strategic planning. So you get involved mainly in that um and looking at the path forward and what we're doing, but also in the background, you do things that you can from your industry position. Yeah. So I've helped with introductions to different people in the renewable space and different organizations around Scotland as ETZ looks for its bigger capability than just Aberdeenshire, because I think it does have a capability beyond Aberdeenshire. Yeah. Um and which is good.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

You you mentioned you're on the board with a golf club. You're also you've been on the board with the Scottish Government Trade. Oh how is how that was fun. What does that bring, or what did that what did that give you, or what was your insight to how maybe from a government side, how how they think about the energy sector?

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Well, I you you you're recording this, right? That's unfair, right? There's a lot there's a lot, there's a lot of I don't understand well enough the political minefield, right, that these guys live in. Yeah. Um so I joined the trade, I was asked to join the trade board. It's uh it's a ministerial trade board that is supposed to advise government on um the economic growth plan for Scotland exports.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Um so it's all good, right? There's a lot of really good people on it. There were three of us on it from the energy sectors. There was myself, Richard Knox from Verloon. Yeah. Good guy. Like Richard.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

I saw him yesterday. There was a Houston Gateway.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Good guy. And a guy called Simon. God, I haven't seen him for about a year. That's shocking. Forrest from Nova. Okay. Right? And and we got asked to form a little subcommittee on renewables and help them with a renewables plan. Um that was an eye-opener, right? The good news I would tell you is there are civil servants in that organization who care about what they're doing and understand what they're doing. Yeah. And unfortunately, politicians get in their way. They hold it up. Well, they don't hold it up. They they they it seems to me that politics today is 51% thinking about being in the seat tomorrow and 49% doing what I need to do. Yeah. Um, which is unfortunate. It should be the other way around, right? Um so it's a tough one. It's a tough one, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:47

When you look at the transition here, you've mentioned we've gone completely the wrong way, and it's not changed in 14 years since you've been involved.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

That's unfair. It has changed, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:55

There's nothing. Not to the momentum we'd like it to have changed.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

No, it's not, it's not there's a lot of companies in Aberdeenshire in Aberdeen that are involved in the renewables industry. Yeah. Um quite a lot of them are supplying kit, not for these shores though.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

No, no. Everywhere else. Yeah. So see me.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

So we're losing the race, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:16

So we're losing with regards to that race. You've worked in Russia, France, Houston, all over the world. Is there things for these other countries that you've seen and think why we've no introduced that here to our policy or how we're gone?

SPEAKER_01 36:31

What's kind of things Norway? Look at Denmark and Norway.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

That's what stuns me. Night and day. It's not difficult.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Just catch a little plane for half an hour and go look. Yeah. What they've done with their energy policy and the way they've the way they've encouraged the transition is completely different from what we're doing. Yeah. But we don't learn that. We it's fossil fuel bad, renewable good. It's that's not how it is. Yeah. Like I was speaking, you know, I was speaking with uh Dunk Dogood the other day. Okay. Yeah. And in his Aurora company, they're working out in uh Australia, doing great things, right? So he was explaining to me they're using renewables because the mines are decarbonising mines and using electricity to power them. So they're going round land wind farms next to mines in remote areas. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

I've never heard of that.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

The story is no. Yeah, the story is use one to decarbonize the other.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

We're not.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Not even close.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Top of the agenda should be how do we decarbonize the production of oil out of the North Sea? Not we need to stop it, it's bad. No.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

No, we need it. We need to figure better ways to do what we're doing, right? And we and we and it's just the we've pushed to both extremes of the discussion, which to me isn't it's not a winner. Yeah. Um and I just can't see the the demands on the infrastructure, whether that's the grid or ports or anything else, are so big.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Um I guess histor I'm not a historian, but I'm guessing when you look back, the guys that fund that are industry. And what we're doing is forcing them out. Yeah. Equinor, Shell, BP. You know, people talk about taxing them, but these are the guys that invest in infrastructure. These are the guys that big white.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

There's less and less of that.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

And and that's why why would they?

unknown 38:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

But they're building it elsewhere, right? Other places are, you know, Taiwan, Japan, going gum. The big price for us is floating wind, not fixed. I listened to uh They're building free demonstrator float and wind projects outside the UK.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Well I listened to Serica and Bascalis talking at Subsea Expo, uh the breakfast um regards the um Elemental Energy's uh float and wind project that will go live in 2029. Yeah. But they were talking about the subsea supply chain that they'll need. Yes. And and you when you look at it, that subsea supply chain just won't be there in 2029. Correct. You'd be lucky if it's there in 2028. Correct. So what happened?

SPEAKER_01 39:16

But when you look at floating project float and wind, the move from that sub-sea supply chain is an easy fit. Yeah. It's an easy fit.

SPEAKER_02 39:23

Yeah. Um but that kit and those people and that expertise will be in Asia or Brazil or somewhere else by 2029 if things continue as they are.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

So that project would be I was asked three, four years ago to chair a meeting in Edinburgh of uh somebody duck tank, somebody wanted somebody to do it. Uh it was a government thing. And and they had Finland, Spain, Portugal, us, Scotland, two other countries I can't remember, presenting their case for renewables in offshore wind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

And I'm like, well, they're gonna show us.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

So anyway, in we go, right? And it was okay. The Scottish guys get up and did a good job, right? And the guy from Spain gets up, and there's two of them. There's a guy from the Basque region, okay, and there's a guy from Madrid. And it's like they're two, it's like it's like just enemies. Yeah. So the guy from Spain gives all this political stuff. He's a politician, right? Oh, we're looking at this and we're looking at that. The guy from the Basque region gets up, and it's the Basque region, right? There's no water anywhere near it, right? It's not. They got 121 operating companies currently supplying wind farms around the world.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

I'm like, what? And he shows it, woof, up it goes. Yeah, we don't have wind farms, so we focused on low-cost supplying technology. They got 121 companies four years ago established supplying wind farms around the world.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Globally. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

I'm like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

Why is what's the Spanish guy thinking when he sees that? He's just like rubbish.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

I'm like, glimey.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

That's that's impressive. That is impressive, right? Now whether they all exist today, I couldn't answer. Some were startups, some were bigger. Yeah. But to have that process and then Ports will get up, they got the first uh demonstrator floating wind farm built.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

Yeah. We're miles behind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Equinor asked the Scottish government in 2000 and 14. I was in the room. And the Scottish Gusman asked the head of renewables at Equinor, what can we do for you? Give me the first commercial float wind farm and I'll build it for you. He's still waiting for the answer. No. Twelve years later.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Yeah, so that's not happening.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

I can name the people that are in the room, but I won't. So what's what's people people are looking for partners to help them, right? Um and and float and wind will be like that. Somebody's gonna have to take the risk and build a sizable float and wind farm where the cost is gonna be horrendous, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:04

But they'll just have to burden that.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Somebody's gonna have to prove it and then size it and and the cost will come down, right? Somebody's gonna take that leap of faith. Yeah. You're saying, how do we figure between us that opportunity to make that work? Right. Um because I think we can. Yeah. I think we can.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

And what's the what's the future for you then? What's what's David Curry doing in three, four, five years if you know?

SPEAKER_01 42:35

Oh, I don't I have no idea. I got asked that five years ago and I said golfing and retire, but I still haven't.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

But only tried that.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I tried that. The wife would go bonkers. What do you mean they're gonna stay at home all the time? Um I don't know, Kenny, is the answer, right? I I enjoy what I'm doing with Davis and the team at ProServe. Um if Davis said to me tomorrow the journey's over, then then I would accept that. That's that's I only want to be, you know, as chairman, I don't want to be an interference, I want to be useful, right? I want to add value for what he needs that journey to be, and I'm fine with that. Um I've been approached for other stuff and haven't done it.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

I would never do nothing. Yeah. Right. I enjoy what I'm doing with with um ETZ. Um I've done some other stuff. I help out Scottish Enterprise guys now and again with different things. Um I'm one of these global Scott guys that helps if you get asked.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

So would it be more of advisory support type thing? Yeah, I wouldn't. You wouldn't go back and run a company again.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

I'm too old for that cap.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

So maybe not.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

Maybe um It depends. Nah, no, no, I can't. I'm getting too old. Getting too um.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Yeah, I'm not at all. And then what what do you do then when you're no when you're not working?

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Think about work. No, I that that's that's not fair, right? Think okay, how can I trick Davis in? No. Um what do I do when I'm not working? I I golf. Yeah. I'm r I'm hopeless, man, but I love it. Right. I really enjoy golf. I uh love gardening. I don't do enough of it, but that's life. I like old cars. Okay. I have no clue what they do, but I like old cars.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Yeah. And then a couple of final questions. If you were if if you were getting some of the advice coming into the sector right now, what would be your advice to them? Or are a young leader leading a company in the supply chain?

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Yeah, yeah, I can, because a guy told me this once. Um when when I was away working in another division of FMC a long time ago, and and uh its business here was in big trouble. Yeah. Um it was just shocking. Delivery was really bad, profitability was a big minus number. It was really bad. And and the CEO came and get me from another division, right? I said, I need you to go home. I need you, I don't understand why this is broken. You need to go fix it. And I'm like, no, no, no. I don't want to do it. I'm running this division on my own.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

Yeah, happy where I am.

SPEAKER_01 45:14

Happy lad, right? I go there, it reports to Norway. God, it'll be a nightmare. You know I'm not the best outcreported Norway, it'll be a nightmare. I need you to do this. So so eventually I say, yeah. And he says to me, Okay, I'm gonna give you three bits of advice. I said, Jay, okay, then number one, you're only as good as the people that work for you. Number two, never sell for second best. And number three, if you go to war with Norway, I'll back them against you. And and when he told me all that, I'm thinking, right, I'm like, you're putting me in a no-win suit. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. He was he was making me win without conflict, right? Yeah, he was telling me, I actually know where the problem lies, but I'm gonna back them against you. Yeah. So you have to fix this in a constructive manner, right? And that thing about trusting those, you're only as good as those around you, and don't set off for second best. Any young leader, that's what I'd say. You're only as good as the team of people you've got. The culture created in the company is only the weakest culture you will accept. Yeah. Be confident in what you're doing, right? Yeah. And and and and it's always about the people around you, enabling the team to win. It always is. If I'd known that a long time ago, I'd have been flying. I wouldn't have been sitting doing this in the room. I'd have been lying on a I'd have been lying on a beach somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

But no, it's true, right? It's all about you wouldn't have been, because you'd have been working. Yeah. It's but that's what it's all about, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

That's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

And what will the David Curry legacy be when you're finished, when you've retired eventually? What will people say about David Curry? Or what would you like them to say?

SPEAKER_01 46:55

That was good fun.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

I mean I meet guys from places I've worked before and some of them cross the street. But some of them come and go, that'd be brilliant, by the way. Yeah. That's what matters, right? Doesn't matter what you do in the day. Yeah. It matters when you meet the guy ten years down the road, you're gonna have a beer. Yeah. And remember that it was good.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Good. Yeah. And then last question. If you were to sit in the bar and have a drink with anybody, have a chat, who who would you sit with? Who would you want to have a chat with?

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Oh my god, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

And we've had everything on here.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

I was gonna say one name, but I've had a chat with him, so we won't say that. Churchill.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Churchill.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

Cool. That's a good answer.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

How did you do that? With all your weaknesses and flaws, how did you do that? How did you do that? Yeah, it would be.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

My my tagline on LinkedIn has gone through failure to failure basically with getting up, and it's a church hole. Church hole line.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

Alright, it would be him.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

But perfect, David. Thank you very much. Yeah, no problem. I hope you