Brent Cheshire; UK chairman, DONG Energy

1976: Durham University, honours degree in geology

1977: Joins Shell International Petroleum as a geologist in exploration and production division. Fourteen years with Shell, including three years at the training centre in The Hague

1991: Joins Amerada Hess, serving in a number of roles, including senior vice-president for E&P Worldwide Technology, where he was responsible for all global technical activities

2004: Becomes DONG Energy’s first UK employee, as managing director of UK E&P Company

2014: Takes on managing director role at DONG wind power and chairmanship
of UK business

Brent Cheshire heads up the organisation responsible for building the UK’s largest offshore wind installations and running most of them, but he freely admits that he came to the industry from a position of scepticism. “I’m an oil and gas geologist, and I worked in the exploration and production business for 37 years,” he told The Engineer. After joining DONG Energy’s E&P business, when he transferred over to head up its wind power division, “I thought well, we have a wind resource in the UK and we have to tap into it, but is it ever going to be serious? Gas has to be the thing to do.”