Christine has a BSc in Physics, an MSc in Petroleum Exploration
Seismology and a PGCE in Physics and Maths. She was a graduate trainee
geophysicist with Britoil from 1983 and thoroughly enjoyed the chance
to combine her key interests in Physics and Geology to confront the
industry’s challenges.
A victim of the familiar cycles of the oil industry, she was jobless
in 1986 and decided to re-train as a Physics teacher. It was a
profession she liked but marriage and a move to Aberdeen reopened the
prospect of returning to the oil industry. She was a self employed
consultant with a major operator for a few years until she started a
family. Although determined to devote herself to bringing up her son,
she also missed the intellectual stimulation of work. A full-time job
wasn’t an option and she began to seek part-time opportunities in the
industry. This led to an invitation from Henry Allen to join his
recently formed PGL consultancy on a two days a week contract – the
only difficulty being that she had to start the following week. But
destiny was with her and, on the very same morning, she met a friend
who knew of a good local child minder with an available slot.
Senergy’s recognition that life outside the office is as important
as time spent at work mirrors Christine’s own priorities. She knows
that if her son’s school calls to say that he’s ill, she can collect
him and give him her full attention. Equally, Senergy knows that, when
she is at work, she’ll commit fully to the task in hand. Perhaps
unusually for a large company, Senergy appreciates the varied demands
that are made on parents, from collecting younger children from
nurseries and after school clubs to ferrying teenagers to
extra-curricular activities around Aberdeen. The fact that the Banchory
office is near her home and also close to the river Dee, where she can
take a relaxing lunch time walk, is an
added bonus but, most of all, she appreciates the help and support that are available – on
work-related and other matters – from colleagues what she calls ‘the
friendliest place I have ever worked’.
She’s inspired by anyone who does what they want to do despite being
warned against it by everyone around them. Her conviction is that, if
you really want to do something, the only thing/person stopping you
from doing it is yourself. She’s even positive about the fact that
she’s forever being reminded that she’s the noisiest person in the
office. ‘It means,’ she says, ‘that I’m relaxed and happy there’. She
insists that she does try to control her ‘natural exuberance’ but
acknowledges that ‘dodgy computers’ bring out the worst in her.
She likes to keep physically fit so that she can do what she wants
and eat what she wants without worrying and she maintains her mental
agility by reading and doing crosswords. Her enjoyment of working at
Senergy suggests that the question about her ‘dream job’ is irrelevant.
When pushed, however, she does admit to fancying ‘being the A&S
doctor on a helicopter’ because she likes ‘the adrenalin buzz of
problem solving on the fly’. She also thinks that ‘being David
Attenborough or Michael Palin for a few years would be very acceptable’.