| Description | Tape 1 Side A ASHOK (ASH) KUMAR BAKSHI born 17 August 1942, India. Currently President of Punj Lloyd, international oil/gas construction company. Details re travel, responsibilities. Started in oil/gas work in North Sea in 1976. Background to names, their meaning. Grew up in army family which travelled a lot. Went to boarding school, university in India. Details re degree. 1963 went on scholarship to University of Colorado. Very comfortable home life. Second of 5 children. Details re siblings. Paternal family had warrior, princely background, were cashiers of maharajas of Punjab. Has Persian ancestry. Details re paternal grandfather. Mentions interest in genealogy in India, whereabouts of own family records. Details re grandmother's family. Maternal family came from Peshar, lost everything during Partition, stationed in Bombay, mostly businessmen. Details re father's army work as staff officer. Recalls childhood on farms, various homes. Describes parents, their characters, attitude to discipline and education. Difficulty for father of Partition transition 1947. Own recollections of Partition disturbances. Family religion Hindu. Explains involvement, tolerance. Married a Catholic, son engaged to a Muslim. Recalls servants in childhood home, constant visitors. Mother was smart. Gives example. Mentions status of women then. Influence of friends at school feeding own desire for Western lifestyle, e.g. Ali Khan's nephew. Details re him, his lonely life surrounded by servants. Describes breakfasts with him. Was a reader, went to one of top technical universities in India. Always wanted to explore, encouraged own children to travel. Describes high school in India. Other students there from rich, Who's Who type of people. English-based education.
Tape 1 Side B As child mixed with working class children. Details. Happy childhood. Career aspiration, to be an engineer, get a master's degree. Details of school courses followed. Background to joining Babcock & Wilcocks 1965. Origin of interest in engineering. Recalls playing with Meccano sets. Celebrations, Christian holidays in childhood. Recalls relationships within family. Became mentor to younger sister. Explains. Parents' reaction to own departure for America, condition imposed by father re marriage to Indian woman. Feelings about need to go to America. Difficult choice leading to reneging on marriage arrangement. Describes departure, first flight to America, lone journey. First impressions of Colorado. Many foreign students there. Decided to be self-supporting, took various jobs. Decided to return to India after graduation 1965 but joined Babcock & Wilcocks. Details. Recalls meeting future wife, Diane. Called off previously arranged marriage. Details. Took Diane to meet parents. Recalls their immediate adoption of her. Comments on their attitude, their suggestion of joint marriage at same time as brother, 1966. Memories of own reaction to Kennedy assassination, 1963, feelings of its significance for America at the time. Did 2-year Masters of Mechanical Engineering degree. Recalls work as research assistant looking at fluid dynamics, applicable to oil and gas. 1965-8 worked for Babcock & Wilcocks as Performance Engineer, then as Results Engineer till 1969. Babcock & Willcocks regarded as number one for steam generating boilers for nuclear, commercial etc power plants. Own job designing big industrial steam boilers, testing them. Details. Explains problems in designing a boiler. Recalls boss and mentor Sam Morris.
Tape 2 Side A Babcock & Wilcocks (cont'd) headquarters were in Ohio. Mentions study for MBA when working with them. Recalls meeting future wife Diane, love at first sight. Details leading to marriage in Bombay six months later 1966. Comments on both sets of parents', families' acceptance of religious, racial implications of relationship. Diane's father was Deputy Mayor, a newscaster. Details. Influence of Diane, her parents, on career moves. Background to move to Houston 1969 - first contact, employment with Brown & Root. Mentions Green Card, citizenship. Feelings about Houston. Wife joined Eastern Airlines. Details. Mentions own philosophy in life. First job in Brown & Root as Senior Mechanical Engineer. Recalls first impressions of oil refinery, finding out new things about requirements, processes. Describes oil cracking process. Reference to Gulf Oil. Got to know about construction sites, capital investment. Project Manager had own plane, flew with him. Mentions earlier gliding experience. Recalls West Toole, Project Manager, his accounts of oil industry. Brown & Root got job in Alaska from BP which had just found Forties field in North Sea. Brown & Root contracted to design first big jacket at Nigg. Describes can-do culture of Brown & Root, compares with other companies. Stayed with them 30 years. Details. Own Indian background made no difference to career progression. Details re other non-Europeans in company, their careers in comparison to own. Only Indian to make Senior Vice President in Brown & Root. Reported indirectly to Dick Cheyney. Details. Impressions of Cheyney, recollections of working, conversations with him, his long term interests. 1975 Project Staff Engineer, 1976 Mechanical Staff Supervisor. Attitude of company to promotion.
Tape 2 Side B Brown & Root attitude to staff. Family situation in Houston, Diane's work with Eastern Airlines, perks of her job. Agreement with her re timing of children. Reference to birth control, Catholic church. Details re birth of children, their names, lack of Indian influence in their formative years, decision re language used. 1976 move to UK as Senior Product Engineer, London to work on massive Mobil Statfjord B project. Impact of move on personal, family life. Comments on own Indian influence on family relationships, roles, transitions etc. Example of care of parents. Relationship now with children. Recalls transition to British lifestyle, culture, having no links. Had two tough years. Describes work with Norwegians, compares their approach to work, their culture with that of Americans. Recalls early difficulty with British work culture, attitude, productivity, excellence of their technology. English attitude to moving to Aberdeen. Scots had more mobile, willing attitude. Reasons for own attitude to work, compares with other Indians' leadership qualities. Mobil Statfjord B job: difficulties working with other companies, cultures. Details re own brief in Norway, platform, construction. Issues of safety at that time. Details re problems in 4-year project. Explains situation re Norwegian procurement policies, own work in this area. Reference to own past, current involvement with OSO. Had unionised workforce. Consequence of abundance of work. No conflicts. Own long working hours to compensate for Norwegians' short work culture. Got on well with Norwegians. Explains. Involved in 10-year joint venture agreement between Kvaerner and Brown & Root signed 1981-2. Recalls celebrations when Statfjord B came on stream.
Tape 3 SideA Kvaerner and Brown & Root joint venture (cont'd). Arrangement involving work in Norway, updating technology, management systems etc which went well at first but became strained. Details leading to end of venture. Describes culture of Kvaerner, compares with other Norwegian companies. Main competition at that time, McDermott, Amec, Bechtel, Foster Wheeler. Details. Mentions large amount of work around then. Comments on relationship with Mobil as company to work with, other work with them in Newfoundland. Recalls work done with Hamilton Brothers. Mobil and Hamiltons like night and day in procedures. Explains. Further details re Hamiltons, one of a kind. Comments on Occidental culture in early 1980s, their attitude to safety. Describes Shell, BP approach to business, their bureaucracies. 1980 Project Manager Shell Tern platform. 1983, first hands-on job with bigger project as Project Manager British Gas Rough storage installation. Explains multi-level structure of BG organisation, its background. Details re own role in job. No industrial disputes. Advent of Maggie Thatcher. Explains high opinion of her. Feelings about being British. Thatcher made oil success happen. Reference to taxes. 1983 promoted to Head of European, African Projects. Responsible for $5-600M worth of projects per year. Young for position. Explains success, way of managing people. Importance of timely delivery. Training for management was mainly hands on, learned on the job. Recalls first impression of North Sea as a place to work. At that stage, safety not priority as opposed to delivery. Explains. Growth of project management systems, computer programmes. Family situation at this time, own rules for weekend time off. Attitude of British, Norwegian to families/work.
Tape 3 Side B 1987-9 BP Gyda project, Norway. Background to appointment. Mentions good relationship with BP. Details re job. Moved family to Oslo. Details re home owned by Widero family, Norwegian lifestyle for children. Details re own brief for job. Recalls end of joint venture with Kvaerner. Describes place of Gyda job in BP strategy. 100 per cent Norwegian managed, designed job. Mentions procurement issues. Explains own strengths. Weakest link was hands-on fabrication, had to depend on others. Recalls waking up at nights with ideas. Importance of motivating team. Describes handover point of project. 1989-92 Project Director on Piper Bravo. Background to appointment. Recalls possibility of Mobil Hibernia project, Newfoundland, iceberg hazard, being called to Piper project. Details re requirement for speed of construction. Recalls progress, cost, staff numbers, facilities, new safety regulations. Impact of Piper Alpha disaster in Norway. Mentions Alexander Kieland disaster. Particular features of Piper B project, location of new structure, new well discoveries. Job done in record time. Attitude of people to working on new Piper, incentives, attitude of families, Oxy (Occidental). Had met Armand Hammer. Explains admiration of him. No financial constraints in redeveloping Piper. Difficulty getting safety cases approved. Opinion of new safety case regime. Morale, improved conditions on Piper B, day of first oil. Job scheduled to take 42 months, took 36. Explains. 1992 BP Andrew Project Director. Explains concern about North Sea situation at that time. BP position. Details re JMW Consultants who coached BP management into world of possibilities, making possibilities come true by behaving in certain way. Process applied to Andrew project.
Tape 4 Side A Project Director BP Andrew project (cont'd). Further details re JMW psychological, behavioural coaching for BP staff in realising possibilities. Andrew project taken as test case. Reaction of industry to BP approach. Own reaction to project - took it as challenge. Details. Took part in BP year-long course held for contractors in Aberdeen, cost $30,000 per person. Development of BP alliance concept. Own win-win scenario involving efficiencies, aligning contractors, interfaces, etc. Designed formula which became industry norm on alliancing. Details of gainshare plan. All contractors signed up to alliance except driller, Santa Fe. Explains. Recalls atmosphere on job. Finished job well below budget six months ahead of schedule. Details. Project was highlight of life. Project in retrospect. Project got award in 1994. After Andrew, became Deputy Project Manager, Director of Business Acquisitions, ie changed to business development. 1996 Deputy Managing Director Europe, Africa. At that time Brown & Root at highest level ever, market leader. Decision taken to grow company three times in four years, 'triple jump'. Used JMW again, succeeded in less than three years. But changes to Brown & Root culture, company lost its strength. Reasons for this. Family situation, lived in London from 1988. Details re parents, siblings. Spent a lot of time in Aberdeen. Explains. Impact of industry on Aberdeen, attitude of Aberdonians. 1996-7 Managing Director, Europe & Africa. Details of 'triple jump' increase in company. Recalls colleagues, planning sessions. 1997 Vice President. Details re acquisition of Dresser on Dick Cheyney's initiative. Explains own role. Comments on skills involved in acquisitions, mergers.
Tape 4 Side B 1999 Senior Vice President. Background to appointment, responsibilities. Company became $8 billion corporation. Thoughts about future challenges. 2001, left Brown & Root, joined Ron Chambers, mentor, in new technology company, Petrocosm. Reasons for end of Petrocosm. Mentions feelings about emails, approach from JMW. Accepted invitation to join Punj Lloyd, Indian based company, as Chairman. Details re company. Happy about doing work in India. Impact on family. Some involvement with North Sea through OSO (Offshore Supplies Office) (now British Trade International) Board membership. Feelings about North Sea now, oil, gas industry moves to other parts of the world. View of Indian situation. Future of the North Sea industry. UK likely to become net importers of oil and gas in next five to ten years. Career in retrospect. Listed in Who's Who.
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