People and projects from around the PETROFAC world

People and projects from around the PETROFAC world

PEOPLE

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ADAM CHEESMAN
Adam joined Petrofac’s Aberdeen office in 2013 as a Senior Project Manager in the Brownfield Engineering and Construction department. He is marking his one-year anniversary in Australia as Operations Director.


In January 2019 I was asked to jump out of my Operations Director role in Aberdeen to run a fast-track tender proposal here and subsequently, I was asked if I would move to Australia permanently to lead the business here. I split my time between the UK and Australia for a few months before moving to Perth last August. It’s been really different. I’ve always worked in an executional role – either within Operations or Engineering – whereas the role here is more strategic and focused on building a sustainable business.

It’s been challenging moving to a more strategic role that has such an emphasis on business development. People say I’m good at BD but in all honesty, it’s out of my comfort zone and at times I do miss the day-to-day challenges of an operational role. I do enjoy the networking aspects of my role. A lot of my exposure is now with senior executives, government representatives and private equity groups – again this is very different but extremely interesting.

When I was in the UK I looked after the Petrofac apprentice programme alongside my day-to-day operational role, which I absolutely loved. It was always extremely rewarding to see them progress through their college years and then periodically bump into them again offshore when I’d do management site visits. There was a real drive to get more women into the apprentice programme and before I left, we had more women applying than ever before. When I came here, I had a blank piece of paper on which to build a team and realised I could continue to pursue a more balanced gender split and that has resulted in us currently having a 50/50 gender split across our offices here. It makes a better team and produces better results. If I can do my small bit, it is a step in the right direction for Petrofac.

My daughter can play outside here all year round, unlike in Scotland. It’s the middle of winter here and we were out on our bikes all weekend. The fact I can play golf all year round is also a positive! The lifestyle is much more relaxed and focused on outdoor living, you can meet friends in the park or at the beach and cook a few shrimps on the barbie, as the saying goes. It’s one of the main reasons we decided to move here.

“I’ve always worked in an executional role whereas the role here is more strategic and focused on building a sustainable business.”

WORDS CHRISTINA McPHERSON

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2020

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