In the second of our four women in the boardroom pieces this year, we meet with Jann Brown, who is managing director and chief financial officer of Cairn Energy.
Edinburgh-headquartered Cairn was founded by the entrepreneurial former rugby star Sir Bill Gammell three decades ago. It has been hugely successful, in part because of the talent that he was able to gather into the company, not the least being Jann Brown.
She remains a rare example of a woman who really has smashed through the oil and gas industry glass ceiling. But how did she do it?
It appears that her career choice has much to do with Brown’s success as anything. Happenstance, she had chosen accountancy as a career.
“I would really call myself a finance professional who happens to have made a successful career in oil and gas,” she told Energy.
“In general, I think it is probably easier for women in corporate functions like finance, law, HR, corporate affairs to come through to senior positions than it can be for geoscientists and engineers.
“Part of that is a numbers game. In the corporate disciplines that I refer to, it starts with an at least 50:50 male:female ratio in the classroom before they even start coming through the various professions.”
Brown is very clear, if this industry wants women, the start point is the school classroom . . . encouraging more girls to study maths and science and to consider careers like engineering and geoscience.
Having made it on to the oil and gas payroll, she suggests that one of the barriers to women making it to the top of the corporate ladder is that the system remains stacked in favour of the male.
“There is that overworked phrase that women are under-mentored and under sponsored,” she said. “While mentoring is very important it is sponsorship that can make the difference.”
And that basically is about being known by those who matter at the top.
“I think there are more established networking routes for men such as the golf course, the shoot, and other things.
“There are far fewer events that are open to women of that nature, still.”
So what’s the position in other countries, take Norway for example?
“Norway was clearly at the forefront of establishing mandatory quotas for women on its boards. Across Europe and into Asia and in the United States there is a lot of pressure to up the quota women in the boardroom.
“Again I see no silver bullets. And in any case, I think most senior women and probably senior men too, would not inherently favour a quota system.”
Brown points to the significant female talent in the lower echelons of the oil and gas industry, suggesting this will inevitably bring pressure to bear. However, smashing through into the boardroom may still prove difficult and it could well turn out to be a numbers game.
“Just because you have the female graduate numbers does not mean that there is a follow-through to the most senior positions including on the board.”
However, Brown is not the first woman on the Cairn board.
“We have another female and a non-executive director and I think Cairn does have an open culture that embraces not just gender diversity but all sorts of diversity.”
Brown suggests that Cairn’s huge and successful engagement with the Indian sub-continent has something to do with the company’s relative openness.
To succeed, it was essential to begin to understand how different the culture is out there; otherwise how could anyone working at executive committee level make the right decisions?
But what actually created the top slot opportunity at Cairn for Brown?
“I was asked,” she said. “I was headhunted and it was at the right stage in my career because I was in the accounting profession. It was at a time when a move into industry was attractive.
“Cairn was then riding the first real wave of success in Bangladesh and so was an incredibly exciting company to come and work for.
“I joined a finance team that was probably very focused on exactly the sort of skills that I have and I managed to flourish. I’ve been with the company since 1998.”
So, what influence does Brown think she has had since then with regard to strategic thinking and direction at Cairn? Has she made a real difference?
“My background and skills are very much corporate structuring and in capital markets. Maybe the example that is most obvious is the flotation of Cairn in India.
“We are talking about two years after the Ragisthan (Mangala field) discovery (of 2004) when it was clear that we were going to have to raise development capital.
“It would have been very straightforward and simple to have gone to the UK capital markets to do that.
“The selection of the Indian capital market as a strategic goal? I definitely had some influence in the decision and its delivery. It was no small feat and it took a lot of effort, dedication and fast thinking; there were a lot of issues thrown out as we were pretty much the first to attempt this.
“On a corporate level it reset the direction of the company.”
Rolling the clock forward to 2011 and Cairn’s decision to sell 40% of Cairn India for about $5.5billion net was clearly another special milestone for Brown.
“We could have just given the cash back (to shareholders), disbanded the people and said, ‘Right, game over!’
“Instead, we believed enough in the power of the team, backed by that money, to go out and look for assets and create new business. It was decided to give a significant amount of money back to the shareholders and re-scale the business.
“Fundamentally, that was a balancing act between having a small enough equity base to make a real impact on exploration success but enough cash left in the business so that we were a sustainable entity.
“We made a judgement call as to where that level was. That was two years ago.
“It feels like longer but I think that’s because we have moved so fast to recreate a business.”
However, while she clearly played a central role in building the Cairn that we know today, Brown is adamant: “We have always worked as a team’
“I stress, we have worked together for a long time; we know each other, we know our strength and weaknesses and it is support from within the team that helps get us all through.”
Q & A
Age: 58
Education: university, college, other: MA in History from Edinburgh University and Diploma in Accounting from Heriot-Watt
The 2/3 main roles in career and dates:
Cairn Energy – from group tax manager in 1998, to main board in 2006.
KPMG/Deloittes Senior Tax Manager
President Elect of Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) 2014/15
What has been the hardest decision you have made in business? To spend considerable amounts of staff time and money on installing an ERP system when we were still a small business – it was a leap of faith that we would grow and would reap the benefits later. We did and we have!
Who do you admire in business? Or who has inspired you most in your career? I have always admired the way Norman Murray steers through any situation with professionalism, an air of calm and a pragmatic approach – and it’s always done with grace and humour!
What do you regard as being your greatest success to date? The development of Cairn India as a standalone, fully listed business, and the follow on return of more than $4.5 billion to Cairn shareholders
What do you do to relax? I love performance and visual arts, reading, visiting new places and spending time with my family including young grandchildren
Where is your favourite holiday destination? Corsica, for its French culture and cuisine and its own wild and wonderful scenery
What is your favourite gadget? My iPad – I cannot imagine life without one now. World wide connectivity in my handbag!
If you were not in the job you are in, what job would you like? Head of Amnesty International! Don’t worry, Kate Allen, I know the job is not available!
What charity do you support? A wide range – from Scottish arts and performance organisations, through UK wide social charities to international women’s and children’s aid work
Where would you like to retire to? My home by the coast in beautiful East Lothian
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