Last April, the ITF’s latest CEO took the reins following his widely welcomed appointment to this important role as a technology catalyst.
A key reason why Paddy O’Brien’s hiring to drive the Industry Technology Facilitator’s programme forward is because, in a prior life as MD of Irish-Scots subsea engineering company MCS, he had first-hand experience of participating in and putting together joint industry projects of the kind that lie at the heart of ITF. MCS was acquired by Wood Group Kenny in 2006, when he took up the role of group director of services and technology.
Having consulted with members and key stakeholders, plus largely reviewed ITF’s current portfolio of projects, O’Brien is working with his team to draw up the strategy that will lay out the organisation’s priorities . . . near- and long-term. Expectation is that this will be launched in the autumn.
However, he is already clear about the need to reinforce ITF’s technology team; become assertive as a thought leader in technology, and get very close to the 30 or so corporates that comprise the organisation’s membership in terms of understanding their challenges and needs.
A challenge for O’Brien is that ITF is largely run by its membership and that the breadth of operator and supply chain player interests is very diverse. This posed a major challenge for his predecessors and it will too for O’Brien, though he appears better equipped, having played in the joint industry project space with MCS.
He understands the need to be flexible . . . responsive, yet O’Brien will also have to be assertive.
O’Brien homed in on the current extended oil recovery push and the fact that a group of companies from the North Sea’s PILOT EOR workgroup have decided that ITF is the organisation to facilitate bringing in proposals and do some joint industry and collaborative work in that area.
The whole EOR thing is a key part of the whole UK strategy,” he says. “We’re very pleased to be playing right in the middle of that. But what’s really important here is the commitment of the EOR workgroup to actually bring something forward in a collaborative way.
“It means ITF has a job to do; we have to deliver. What’s really important is the level of support that the EOR thing enjoys.”
ITF has put out a number of significant calls in recent years; but what has come out of them and is O’Brien satisfied with what he has unearthed during his honeymoon period?
“We currently have about 30 JIPs on the go at a total funding of about £15million,” he says.
“In that portfolio are examples of really good projects, significantly funded. What I would say is that there’s plenty of evidence of good stuff being done. But what we do lack is an overall strategic approach in terms of where we might be going.”
But surely having the strategic overview is a core function of ITF?
O’Brien agrees but says that some projects have perhaps fallen into the trap of being purely technical and where the bigger strategic business goal of sponsor organisations has not been properly accounted for.
“This is why I’m keen about the UK (oil and gas) technology strategy that’s now being developed. We’re very much involved and are working closely with Oil & Gas UK. We have a hand in developing it and we’ll certainly feed the input of our members into it.”
He sees ITF as performing an important role in the implementation of what can perhaps be likened to a grand strategy for North Sea technology. There’s never been one and there is no guarantee that this initiative will work.
O’Brien is encouraged by the fact that the current push has the blessing of key managing directors and CEOs within the industry. They are apparently participating proactively and not just leaving the technology thing to technical departments within the various companies involved.
It basically means that one outcome of the Technology Strategy Review is that boardroom support of a JIP might be more apparent than in the past.
O’Brien is keen to see more collaborative working within the ITF’s membership itself.
“I think there is another opportunity to allow our members to collaborate more at the strategic level. We would like to create a framework to enable multi-company collaborative projects that work at a very significant strategic level. I know our members are up for that to happen.
“But let me be clear, innovation happens within small companies and we have to be able to go out there and capture that.”
And where’s the evidence? Anyone who follows Energy knows that we regularly feature ITF-fostered JIPs and at the heart of most are small companies.
“We’re launching at Offshore Europe, our 200th project. We’ve had £57million of direct member investment over our 14 years; the vast majority is UK. But its not enough. In relative terms it’s small. We need to do more.”
Another issue on O’Brien’s mind is collaborative technology development versus the development of competitive technology.
“But the question I’m trying to find an answer to is, what is the size of the collaborative space versus the size of the competitive space? I’m guessing that the collaborative space that I’m working in is a relatively small percentage of the competitive space,” he says.
“Problems associated with ageing assets, such as corrosion, is an example of issues that everybody faces. So there’s no advantage to be gained by any of our members by competing. Instead they should be looking for solutions collaboratively.
“There has to be plenty of opportunity for ITF to try to bring more funding into the collaborative space. De facto, that’s the space we’re in.”
ITF doesn’t have much money, its team is small and that means great care has to be exercised when selecting projects to run with on behalf of sponsoring members. There is a powerful need for pragmatism and flexibility, qualities that this quiet, Irish chartered engineer would appear to have in abundance.
Paddy O’Brien: Q&A
Age: 53
Education: university, college, other
– PhD in Engineering from National University of Ireland, Galway
– Recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) – please see my citation on
http://raeng.org.uk/about/fellowship/default.htm
under “New Fellows 2013”
The 2/3 main roles in career and dates:
Engineering Analyst & Manager, MCS, Galway, Ireland, 1984-1991
Managing Director, MCS UK, Aberdeen, 1994-2006
Group Director Strategic Business & Marketing, Wood Group Kenny, 2008-2013
Chief Executive, The Industry Technology Facilitator, April 2013 to Present
What has been the hardest decision you have made in business
Deciding to close down our MCS fledgling office in London after a poor start and move to Aberdeen. Turned out to be a great decision.
Who do you admire in business? Or who has inspired you most in your career?
I admired Steve Jobs for his instinctive ability to predict what customers want and deliver on it.
What do you regard as being your greatest success to date?
Being part of a management team that led a business, namely MCS, from a small university spin out company outside of the oil and gas industry in Ireland to a truly world leading riser design company with offices around the world acting on the international stage. Aberdeen and the experience gained by the company in the UK continental shelf was a vital part of that success.
What do you do to relax?
I love to explore and develop abstract mathematical concepts and exercise regularly.
Where is your favourite holiday destination?
Florence, Italy: culture, art, food and history all in one.
If you were not in the job you are in, what job would you like?
I would love the opportunity to drive a large articulated truck with the challenge of manoeuvring it.
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