Bill Gammell

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Sir William Benjamin Bowring Gammell, commonly known as Bill Gammell (born 29 December 1952 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish sportsman and industrialist.

1 Early life
2 Rugby
3 Business career
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Bill Gammell's father was an investment banker, invited at an early age to join Edinbugh's Ivory & Sime (which was started in the late 1800s with the formation of the British Assets Trust.) Gammell attended Edinburgh's exclusive Fettes College, originally a foundation to benefit orphans, where he was friends and debating partners with future British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The two have remained close friends. After Fettes, Gammell attended the University of Stirling where he obtained a BA in Economics and Accountancy.

[edit] Rugby

Gammell played rugby union at county level and for the Scottish national team. A tall winger, he earned five international caps, and played in the game against Japan in 1977 in Tokyo when he scored four tries in the Scots' 74-9 victory.

[edit] Business career

After his rugby career was ended by injury, Gammell followed his father into business. Using venture capital, he founded Cairn Energy in Edinburgh. The company invested in several unsuccessful oilfields in the US before making a modest strike in the Pennsylvania oilfield. Gammell was appointed Cairn's Chief Executive on its initial listing in 1989. In the mid 1990s he led the company in a radical reallocation of its assets, moving out of US and North Sea oil and gas concerns and into neglected fields in South Asia. The companies fortunes soared when a field it had bought (for £7 million) from Shell in the Indian province of Rajasthan turned out to be the largest find of the year, catapulting Cairn into the FTSE 100.

Gammell's father invested US oil company Bush-Overbey, owned by future US President George H. W. Bush. The two families became friends, with George W. Bush spending the summer at the Gammell's farm in Scotland and Bill was a frequent visitor to the Bush family compound at Kennebunkport. Bill Gammell was one of the investors in George W.'s Arbusto Oil, and George W. attended Bill Gammell's wedding in Glasgow in 1983. The two have remained close friends. When George W. Bush assumed the Presidency, both he and Blair reportedly called their mutual friend Gammell to ask his opinion of the other.

Bill Gammell a director of the Scottish Institute of Sport and Artemis AiM VCT plc., and in 2004 he was awarded UK Entrepreneur of the Year. In the 2006 honours list, Gammell was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to Industry in Scotland".