Stuart McLeod established his first company during the previous economic downturn by venturing into the unknown Azerbaijan market.
His entrepreneurial spirit has since seen him overcome challenging times and become managing director of Aberdeen-based qedi, a provider of software technology and commissioning services to the global oil and gas industry.
The rapidly emerging company recently secured multimillion-pound partnership agreements with oil majors BP and Shell, which involve qedi’s web-enabled project-management suite of software being used on exploration and production projects.
The software, known as GoTechnology, is said to enhance safety and management control on construction and commissioning of oil and gas facilities around the world.
As a result, qedi anticipates a 40% growth in 2010 and is on target to reach its £40million turnover this year.
The company is also looking to recruit up to 60 additional core staff within the next year, having already grown its employee numbers from 100 to 335 in the past four years; 235 of them contractors and 100 directly employed staff.
Staff are principally recruited in the north-east but work mainly on international projects, notably in Kazakhstan where more than 100 are employed. Other major bases overseas are in Port Harcourt and Lagos, in Nigeria, Houston and Azerbaijan.
Joining qedi in 2004 was the result of Mr McLeod’s innovative approach to the rapidly changing oil and gas industry.
Brought up at Cults, in Aberdeen, and after initially aspiring to an Army career – he trained with the Parachute Regiment while studying at university – he went into the oil and gas industry almost by chance.
When he was 16, his family moved to Glasgow where his father Bruce McLeod, a former Wood Group engineering director, wanted to concentrate on his electrical-instrumentation and control-system company, Brumac.
Mr McLeod said: “After studying computer science, I went on to Paisley University to study economics, specialising in marketing, and loved it. At that time, marketing wasn’t considered an integral part of the business so I started promoting Brumac. I learned so much – including the fact that you can oversell your company.”
When recession hit in the 1990s, Mr McLeod decided to head to the emerging Azerbaijan market to set up an international branch of Brumac. He said: “I thought the UKCS was a diminishing market for companies like Brumac. At that time, it was hard to get a visa to go to Azerbaijan but I managed to get one through a friend and went on a trade mission with Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce to explore the business opportunities.”
The fruits of Stuart’s efforts were that he secured a contract to instal drilling systems on BP’s Chirag platform in what was one of the first UK oil and gas deals in the Caspian Sea.
When Brumac later wanted to pull out of Azerbaijan because of the risk factors involved, he was not convinced and started up himself. It was to be one of the toughest years of his life. He said: “I borrowed money, opened an office and groomed a team. But I didn’t have the cash flow, the infrastructure and track record, and I was in a foreign country.
“It’s not the route I’d advise anyone to go down but it proved a huge learning curve and made me appreciate the value of money, client relations and infrastructure.”
After 15 months, Mr McLeod created a profitable business before selling it to Quality Engineering Development (qed) and becoming a shareholder and main board director of its UK and new international arm, qedi.
He said: “We wanted to unite both companies’ international bases to create a specialist international commissioning business under-pinned by technology which is now gaining recognition across the industry.”
Mr McLeod has helped to build up qedi in the face of personal adversity. He and wife Samantha have had more than their fair share of heartbreak, as their baby daughter Jessica died aged just two weeks and their son Kaeden was stillborn.
His friend, Aberdeen businessman Chris Keenan, also battled against colon cancer.
Mr McLeod has coped with the blows the best way he knows: extreme exercise. Two years ago, he and Mr Keenan embarked on one of the world’s notorious assault courses – Toughguy – and he raised more than £5,000 for Aberdeen Sands (Stillbirth and Neo-natal Society).
He attributes his passion for fitness passion to his father, saying: “Since I was about 13, I went with my dad to the gym three times a week and now I go religiously.
“It’s my outlet; fit body, fit mind.”