UK: Subsea 7 S.A Director Wins The Outstanding Achievement Award at a Prestigious Event

Mel Fitzgerald, Director of Subsea 7 S.A. and former Chief Executive Officer of Subsea 7, was last night recognised for his significant and positive impact on the subsea sector. The Outstanding Achievement award was made by Subsea UK at its annual Subsea Business Awards in Aberdeen, UK.

Bill Edgar, Subsea UK’s Chairman, gave great praise to the winner of the prestigious award. “Mel has been involved in the industry for over a quarter of a century in various positions ranging from Project Engineer to CEO of a leading global subsea company, Subsea 7.

He is credited with the globalisation of Subsea 7 in his six years as CEO and is a most worthy recipient of this year’s award.”

Mel Fitzgerald was honoured to receive the prestigious award and commented:

“These awards recognise the efforts of many people from across the  industry and it’s a great privilege to be honoured amongst them. I am collecting this award not just for myself but for all those people that I have worked with over the last 30 years and in particular all those at Subsea 7.

“Going forward, to succeed and grow, this industry must sustain the training and development of our people, including addressing the skills shortage and attracting new talent, as well as increasing investment in new technology and assets and always remain focused and disciplined when it comes to safety.”

Mel was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Subsea 7 from December 2004 to January 2011. During Mel’s time as CEO the company emerged to be one of the world’s leading subsea engineering and construction companies, expanding its area of operations from being principally a North Sea based contractor into a tier-one global player, with operations in the North Sea (UK and Norway), North America, Africa, Brazil and Asia Pacific.

Most recently, Mel played an instrumental role in the merger of Subsea 7 Inc. and Acergy S.A., creating Subsea 7 S.A., a global leader in subsea engineering, construction and services.

Mel has not only been an inspiring leader of Subsea 7 but he has also found time to continually foster and promote constructive industry collaboration not only within the subsea community but also across the whole UK offshore oil and gas industry and between Industry and Government.

Last night’s event was attended by over 450 people from the subsea industry. The awards coincide with the annual 2-day Subsea UK conference and exhibition in Aberdeen which concludes today.

Subsea 7 S.A. is a seabed-to-surface engineering, construction and services contractor to the offshore energy industry worldwide. We provide integrated services, and we plan, design and deliver complex projects in harsh and challenging environments.

Mel Fitzgerald – Biography

Mel has been involved in the oil industry since he joined Brown & Root in 1974 as Project Engineer and has worked in a number of locations including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Kingdom, progressing through various technical and commercial positions until he joined the Brown and Root / Saipem pipe laying joint venture European Marine Contractors (EMC) in 1988. In his time at EMC he was instrumental in turning a North Sea based business into a true global pipelay contractor. Mel was Project Manager on the Statoil Zeepipe project, the first of the major trunk line projects of the 1990s which saw EMC subsequently install Europipe, Zeepipe2, Troll, Norfra, the Scotland to Northern Ireland Connector and the Interconnector trunk lines. These projects completely ‘re-plumbed’ the European gas transmission system. Mel subsequently became EMC’s Commercial Manager, and later Deputy General Manager, and won work in the US, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, China and Australia. He was also a key player in developing Alliance type projects in the North Sea including BP and Shell ETAP and Conoco Britannia.

Mel’s potential leadership qualities were identified by Brown & Root’s parent company, Halliburton, and in 2000 he was promoted to Vice President and asked to run Halliburton’s Subsea business unit. Mel quickly identified that for Halliburton Subsea to compete on a global scale would require increased size and access to Subsea pipelay capability. A Norwegian company, DSND, was identified as a good strategic fit and the companies merged  together in 2002 to form Subsea 7.

Following the initial set-up of Subsea 7, Mel remained with Halliburton as Vice President for the Energy Services Group in Western Europe. He ran this business extremely successfully until December 2004 before joining Subsea 7 as the Chief Executive Officer. He is now a Director of Subsea 7 S.A.

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Source:Subsea7 s.a., February  10, 2011; Image:Subsea Uk