Sir Bill Gammell
Sir Bill is Chief Executive of Cairn Energy PLC (Cairn) and Chairman of Cairn India Limited. Cairn is an Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration and production company and a member of the FTSE 100.
Bill founded Cairn in 1980 and under his direction the group has grown from a market capitalisation of $10 million in 1992 to over $10 billion today. The share price has increased over 100 fold during the same period. Cairn has grown both organically and by acquisition and Bill has wide corporate experience. Cairn has conducted Public Company Corporate Transactions in the UK, US, Australia, Holland and India and Bill has served on the boards in all of these jurisdictions.
Alongside his leadership at Cairn PLC Bill holds/held the following directorships:
2008 – Director sportscotland
2007 - Member of UK Indian Business Council
2007 - Member of Government Asia Task Force
2006 - Member of British Olympic Advisory
Board2006 - Founder & Chairman, The Winning Scotland Foundation (WSF)
2003 – Director of Artemis VCT Trust
1999 – 2009 - Director of The Scottish Institute of Sport
2008 - Non Executive Director, Glasgow 2014
Numerous awards and honours include:
2007 - Hon Doctorate of Engineering, Heriot Watt University
2006 - Knighthood for services to industry in Scotland Entrepreneurial Exchange Hall of Fame
IOD Scotland Director of the Year
Hon Doctorate of University, Stirling University
2005 - Hon Doctorate of Business Administration, Napier University
2004 - Ernst and Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year Business Insider Elite Leader of the Year.
Bill is passionate about developing people and instilling a positive winning attitude in both business and sport. This developed from his own entrepreneurial career and his experience as a Scottish rugby internationalist (1977-1980). In 2006 he founded Winning Scotland Foundation to mobilise efforts to raise aspirations and self-belief amongst young people and their coaches in Scotland. The mantra of the Foundation is ‘winning isn’t everything but wanting to win is’ and over £3.5 million has been invested in key programmes to date.
Bill was educated at Fettes College and has a BA in Economics and Accounting from Stirling University. He was born on 29 December 1952. He is married with 3 sons and a stepson.
Alastair Balfour
Alastair Balfour is a business journalist turned entrepreneur turned specialist business advisor. After a 17-year newspaper career (The Scotsman, Daily Record, Sunday Standard) he co-founded the Scottish Business Insider publishing group in 1984 and built it to a £3m sale in 1999. He has since been personally involved as a director and investor in the launch of seven businesses. His major interests are Company Creators – www.companycreators.co.uk – which he co-founded in 2001 and for which he has handled business planning, strategy and funding for 27 high-growth ventures, and 2in10 – www.2in10.com – which he co-founded in 2004. His specialist expertise lies in business strategy, investment strategy and competitive positioning for high-growth companies. Alastair was a founder of the Entrepreneurial Exchange, and a director for six years. He is a member of Strathclyde Business School’s advisory board, a member of the Archangel Informal Investment group and a past judge of the annual Scottish Software Awards. He also chairs the UK Trustees of the African Environmental Film Foundation.Alastair Balfour, Company Creators, www.companycreators.co.uk
Registered in Scotland. Company registration number SC160976.
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