Sir Bill Gammell is Chief Executive of Cairn Energy PLC (Cairn) and Chairman of Cairn India Limited.
Born on 29 December 1952, Bill attended Fettes College and was then awarded a BA in Economics and Accounting from Stirling University. He is married with three sons and a stepson.
Bill founded Cairn in 1980. Under his direction, Cairn has grown in value from $10 million in 1992 to over $10 billion today. Cairn’s share price has increased over 100-fold during this time.
Cairn’s growth has been both organic and gained through Bill’s wide corporate acquisition experience. Cairn has conducted Public Company Corporate Transactions in the UK, US, Australia, Holland and India. Bill has served on the Board of each jurisdiction.
Bill is passionate about developing people and instils a winning attitude in both business and sport. This has developed from his own entrepreneurial career and his experience as a Scottish rugby internationalist (1977-1980).
In 2006 Bill founded Winning Scotland Foundation, which aims to raise aspirations and self-belief among young people and coaches in Scotland. The foundation’s mantra is ‘winning isn’t everything but wanting to win is’. Bill has invested over £3.5 million in key programmes to date.
Bill holds many directorships in addition to Cairn
- 2008 -
- Director Sportscotland
- 2007 -
- Member of UK Indian Business Council
- 2007 -
- Member of Government Asia Task Force
- 2006 -
- Member of British Olympic Advisory Board
- 2006 -
- Founder and Chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation (SISF)
- 2003 -
- Director of Artemis VCT Trust
- 1999 - 2009 -
- Director of The Scottish Institute of Sport
- 2008 -
- Non Executive Director, Glasgow 2014
Bill’s awards and honours
- 2007 -
- Hon Doctorate of Engineering, Heriot Watt University
- 2006 -
- Knighthood for services to industry in Scotland
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- Entrepreneurial Exchange Hall of Fame
-
- IOD Scotland Director of the Year
-
- Hon Doctorate of University, Stirling University
- 2005 -
- Hon Doctorate of Business Administration, Napier University
- 2004 -
- Ernst and Young UK Entrepreneur of the Year
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- Business Insider Elite Leader of the Year