Scottish oil industry veteran Mike Bowyer may have carved out a career for himself in a completely different profession if it had not been for botany.
In his youth, he wanted to be a doctor and went to university to study medicine.
But the subjects included botany, which Mr Bowyer, 58, struggled with, and this put him off medicine.
This change of heart led him to the oil and gas industry.
Mr Bowyer said: “I asked the careers guidance officer what the farthest thing away from medicine was and he said mechanical engineering.
“I have always been interested in how things work. My mother was a doctor and I was always taking her medical equipment apart. When I was a teenager, I built a motorbike from bits I picked up at a local scrapyard and my cars were generally wrecks that I spent much of my spare time fixing.”
Mr Bowyer was born at Bellshill, Lanarkshire, and moved to Aberdeen at the age of four with his family when his father, a minister, accepted a transfer to the city’s North Church of St Andrew.
After graduating with a BSc in mechanical engineering from Aberdeen University, he took the first step on to the oil and gas career ladder by joining Baker Oil Tools as a trainee machinist.
Over the next 35 years, Mr Bowyer was general manager of well services at Baker Hughes, managing director of PES International and UK country vice-president for Halliburton.
He said: “I came into the industry when there were a lot of larger-than-life characters around and it was an exciting time. I spent six months as a machinist then went into design and got a real buzz out of making things. I also enjoyed customer contact and trying to solve their issues.”
After 10 years in engineering, latterly as engineering manager, he requested a transfer into operations with Baker and subsequently held a number of progressively-senior roles including area manager for northern Europe, region manager for Europe Africa and managing director for Asia-Pacific.
Some 18 months after returning to the UK from Singapore, the opportunity arose to join PES, which was subsequently acquired by Halliburton.
Mr Bowyer took on the role of managing the legacy PES business through the integration phase as well as assisting in integrating PES people and product lines.
It was to lead to a decade of new roles for him.
Mr Bowyer was appointed to lead Halliburton’s completion product service line as UK country manager before, in 2003, being promoted to UK managing director with overall responsibility for Halliburton’s UK business and subsequently to country vice-president in 2006.
As the senior Halliburton UK executive, he was directly responsible for the development, growth and profitability of the business employing more than 2,000 people.
Before retiring from the company in March this year, Mr Bowyer had a part-time role as its director of industry in the UK. He added: “I had a great experience at Halliburton, where I was privileged to be given lots of opportunities.”
Mr Bowyer is now relishing the challenges of his new role at Senergy, a diversified energy services company, which has it headquarters in Aberdeen. He has become its first chief operating officer and will help position the company for significant growth.
Senergy, which employs around 475 people worldwide, is targeting annual turnover to jump from £78million to £300million in the next five years. Mr Bowyer said: “Senergy is fascinating. It’s a forward-thinking, people-orientated company and I really like the fact that it is not just operating in the oil and gas business.
“Senergy’s breadth of services and capabilities is extremely impressive. It spans alternative energy solutions, geosciences, reservoir engineering, geohazard assessment, marine site surveys, rig positioning, wells engineering and operations and project management.”
The father-of-four added: “I couldn’t have joined at a more exciting time and am looking forward to being involved in driving Senergy’s vision forward.
“My role is about helping people to achieve their potential and grow with the company.”
Mr Bowyer is now responsible for leading day-to-day operations of Senergy and is based at the headquarters in the Granite City.
Senergy chief executive James McCallum, who is based in the Middle East, said appointing a chief operating officer represented a significant milestone for Senergy, and reflected how much it had evolved in just five years. He added: “Mike’s appointment brings a wealth of experience and a different perspective to the company, and will give others, including myself, scope to continue to focus on the company’s overall growth strategy.”
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