Findlay Anderson as a  Associate General Counsel in Oilfield Equipment

A job in the oil and gas industry doesn’t always involve spending weeks or months at a time working offshore on a rig, or in another country. From technical roles like engineering and geology, to commercial or corporate roles in accounting, human resources, marketing and more, the energy industry supports a hugely diverse range of occupations. I’m a prime example of this. In my day job, I am the General Counsel (Head of Legal) for the global Oilfield Equipment business at Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), responsible for overseeing the legal advice and support for all aspects of the company’s operations around the world.

BHGE is the world’s first and only full stream provider of integrated oilfield equipment, services and digital solutions. Its portfolio of solutions and services covers the entire span of the industry – from the reservoir and downhole in the well, to the seabed, right up to the topside and then on down the pipeline to the refinery. With 65,000 people in over 100 countries, we bring global scale together with local know-how to help our customers develop and operate their fields more efficiently, productively and safely.

Currently BHGE has projects ongoing in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, the US and elsewhere. I am based in Aberdeen in Scotland, but over the years have travelled to places as far and wide as Indonesia, Brazil, Russia and Angola – for meetings with customers, government officials and other stakeholders – as we have grown our business in new countries.

After studying Law at the University of Aberdeen, I spent a number of years working in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London on Government infrastructure projects spanning the healthcare, transportation and defence industries. I then moved back to Aberdeen and the oil and gas industry in 2003, before spending nine years working for oil and gas operators across a wide variety of upstream and downstream remits, including buying and selling field interests, negotiating contracts for field developments, joint venture operations and supply chain contracting. For a number of years, I worked as Legal Manager at CNR International, with responsibility for the company’s operations in the UK and Africa.

My current day job can involve everything from advising on tax regulation in Brazil, conducting compliance reviews in the UK, reviewing HR policy in Nigeria, to working on contract negotiations in Australia and much more. No two days are the same and I love the variety of working across the global business. I also spend my days interacting with a wide range of colleagues and love the interaction with them. My role often involves helping other business functions work through significant challenges and issues in order to find solutions that work, not only for us, but for our customers and other stakeholders. That is one of the most rewarding parts of the job – when people leave your office feeling that they have a path forward. I’ve learned that my ‘legal’ role involves much more than just providing legal advice, but also strategic, commercial, financial, risk and other forms of support for the business.

Alongside my legal role I am also the Site Leader for our Aberdeen office – covering a wide range of responsibilities including leadership communications, facilities management, internal culture, community engagement, industry collaboration and liaising with local and central government representatives. The interaction with a wide range of stakeholders means that the job is never dull and you get lots of different perspectives on the industry. I am also the co-leader of BHGE’s Diversity & Inclusion Council in Scotland. This is a fantastic opportunity that involves overseeing our seven internal ‘Employee Resource Groups’ including the African Affinity Forum; BHGE Volunteers; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance (GLBTA); Go STEM; People with Disabilities Network; Wellbeing and the Women’s Network. These groups do an incredible amount of work, running events to engage and inspire our workforce, encouraging continuous learning and better connecting us with the communities in which we live and work.

Outside of work, I have tried to get more involved in community engagement in various ways, whether supporting one of Aberdeen’s local cancer charities, running a few recent marathons in Africa (Uganda and Kenya in the last two years) to raise awareness of the plight of children living in extreme poverty, or being part of the leadership team at our local church. I have always found that the more you put into life, the more you get out of it, both personally and in terms of the friendships and memories that you create along the way.

An important lesson my job has taught me is that you don’t always win every dispute or battle in life. Success is very much about how you learn and grow as an individual, and as a leader along the way. I’ve been involved in situations that have been very challenging and where it can feel that you are really at the coalface. The positives I have found in this is that the working relationships that develop during those times are extremely strong and, many years later, those people remain very close friends and colleagues. When you grow together through the tough times as you try to find solutions for your business, it’s rewarding professionally and also personally at a human level.

One of my biggest leadership learnings over the past 16 years in the oil and gas industry is to value your people, invest in them, stand beside them and help them to win. And don’t stop communicating. In global businesses that have operations across many different regions, this is critical. Someone once said that “the greatest challenge with communication is the myth that it is being achieved”. I try to ensure that I am regularly in contact with my team – whether that is the Legal team around the world, or our people here in Aberdeen. I’m far from perfect, but I’m always learning. And that’s what I love about being a lawyer in the oil and gas industry. No day is the same, it’s never dull and I am on a constant learning curve. Here’s to the future.