When bosses at a fast growing international energy service business in the north-east sought out a new chairman to help to develop the business further they aimed high, and got Charles Mackay.
A glance at his career profile tells you the Cambridge-educated lawyer must have had enough on his plate when PSN came calling at the end of last year, but, as anyone in north-east energy circles knows, PSN chief executive Bob Keiller can be a very formidable and persuasive figure.
When Mr Keiller and Duncan Skinner, PSN’s chief financial officer, reckoned they had found their chairman they were not going to be put off easily.
PSN’s bosses were full of enthusiasm for the Aberdeen business and its future development, and their passion and determination struck a chord with Mr Mackay, 69.
“I had already been approached by headhunters about the job,” said Mr Mackay, adding: “I get a lot of offers and I usually say ‘no’ to them but when I met up with Bob and Duncan we hit it off immediately.
“I was greatly impressed with them as a team.
“PSN was clearly a very internationally minded business doing some outstanding work, with excellent prospects and showing a lot of resilience in very tough market conditions.”
It was the global dimension of PSN’s business which really fired up Mr Mackay’s interest.
There has been a strong international flavour to his career, which was launched with a job as a commercial apprentice with British Petroleum (BP) soon after leaving Cheltenham College in 1957.
BP sent him to Queen’s College, Cambridge, to gain further qualifications and from 1963-68 he worked for the oil and gas giant overseas, initially in Algeria and later in Burundi, Rwanda and Congo.
More studies followed, this time at Insead, one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools at Fontainebleau, near Paris.
He received an MBA, with high distinction, in 1969 and joined international management consultant McKinsey the same year.
The next six years were spent in McKinsey’s London, Paris and Amsterdam offices, in addition to managing the company’s operation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for 18 months.
In 1976, he joined Rotterdam-based Dutch conglomerate Royal Pakhoed (now Vopack) and was a director of its Paktrans European transport and distribution division for two years. For the next four years, he was executive chairman at Paktrans and also a member of Pakhoed’s management committee.
In 1981, Mr Mackay returned to the UK to join the main board of Chloride Group, a provider of secure power services for businesses worldwide. He spent four years as executive chairman of its overseas division before starting a new power-electronics arm.
The next step on Mr Mackay’s career ladder was international car distributor Inchcape, where he was both chief executive and deputy chairman of a business turning over £6billion a year and employing 50,000 people in about 100 countries.
He joined the firm in 1986 as the main board director responsible for the Far East and was chairman and CEO of its Hong Kong-based Inchcape Pacific arm before returning to the UK in 1991 to become group CEO.
Inchcape hit hard times in the early to mid-1990s, when international economic conditions nosedived and consumer spending slid.
The company’s problems led to a series of departures from the boardroom, including that of Mr Mackay, who by then was also deputy chairman, in 1996.
Other former directorships held by the new PSN chairman include boardroom roles at HSBC Holdings, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Midland Bank, British Airways, Johnson Matthey, Thistle Hotels, Gucci Group, the Union Insurance Society of Canton and DSL Group.
He was also deputy chairman of Thistle Hotels and non-executive chairman at DSL, which specialises in fuel-linked promotions.
Mr Mackay, who has homes in London, Wiltshire and Gascony, in France, was also chairman of logistics firm TDG from 2000-08 and of Eurotunnel Group from 2001-04.
He is currently chairman of the board of trustees at Historic Royal Palaces, the organisation responsible for conserving the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and London’s Banqueting House.
In addition, Mr Mackay is a member of the board and chairman of the audit committee of Insead and a business board director of the House of Habib group.
Despite his age, he has no plans to take it any easier and is relishing his monthly visits to Aberdeen for PSN board meetings.
In fact, his trips north will mark a return to his family’s Scottish roots.
His grandfather was a journalist from Wick who ventured south to work as a parliamentary correspondent.
Mr Mackay, who hails from Dorset, is a keen angler and hopes to fit some salmon fishing into his busy schedule whenever he is in the north-east.
His other interests include travel, opera, classical music, tennis, ski-ing and chess.
Swiss wife Annmarie has been both a teacher and an interior designer and the couple have two children, daughter Romola and son Caspar, and two grandchildren.
PSN’s new chairman – the role was carried out previously by oil and gas stalwart George Watkins – said there were two key factors behind his decision to join the board: the firm’s people and it’s extraordinary value system.
He added: “All companies talk about having a value system, but it is often only talk.
“PSN has a wide range of values which really drive the business. I have never seen a company so driven.”
PSN was formed in May 2006 when Mr Keiller and his management team completed a £150million management buyout from KBR Halliburton.
The firm has a worldwide network of about 8,000 people in more than 26 countries and Mr Keiller aims to increase the workforce to above 10,000 by next year.
At the end of April, PSN reported revenue for 2008 of £663.5million, up 10% year-on-year, and growth in earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation of 17% to £40.4million.
It also said its backlog of work under contract at the end of 2008 was £1.653billion, up from £1.361billion a year earlier.
What car do you drive?
Lexus LS430.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
Hotel de Bastard in Lectoure-Gers, France.
What’s your favourite place to go on holiday?
Oman.
Have you ever broken the law?
The odd fixed penalty for speeding.
What or who makes you laugh? Leonard Rossiter; Wallace and Gromit.
What’s your favourite book?
The White Nile, by Alan Moorehead.
What’s your favourite film?
Lawrence of Arabia.
Favourite singer/band?
Maria Callas.
What’s your ideal job, other than this one?
Chairman of Historic Royal Palaces, which I am lucky enough to have.
What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
Don’t ever let them tell you that you are too young to take on a job; Alexander the Great was dead at 32.
Worst business advice?
Leverage the balance sheet right up to maximise shareholder returns.
What do you drink?
Wine, preferably red, malt whisky and Armagnac.
How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
£6 a week as a commercial apprentice at BP.
How do you keep fit?
Two or three times a week at a gym.
Most interesting habit?
None; all my habits are boring and irritating.
What’s your biggest extravagance?
Restoring a very small and rustic 13th-century fortified chateau in Gascony.
With which historical or fictional character do you most identify?
Prince Albert.
If you had £1million to give away, what would you do with it?
Sponsor the new education and community facilities at Kensington Palace.
How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who got a lot out of life and put something back in.