BRETT DARLEY
Quadrant Energy’s managing director tells Peter Klinger it’s about four Ps.
Biggest or best career break?
Obviously the privilege of being asked to run Quadrant Energy, Australia’s newest oil and gas company. I was the managing director of the Apache (Australia business unit) and I get to continue to lead the team. It is a fantastic opportunity to transfer the regional unit of a big multinational oil company into an agile standalone business. It’s got to be a dream job.
Describe your leadership style.
I believe in putting people in the right environment to excel. It is always a balance in extending them without letting them fail, so getting them to walk to the edge but helping them if they look like they are falling. I have always thought people are capable of more than they think they are. I also believe in providing absolutely clarity about our objectives to make a business successful and keep reinforcing that clarity. Many years ago, I worked with (then-Santos general managing drilling) Frank Jones, a very raw and, to some people, quite intimidating character but he got the best out of the team. He let us basically have the room to grow and the room to sort of get ourselves into trouble but never let us hurt ourselves.
Most memorable business experience?
I joined a drilling contractor in the late 1980s, not long after uni, and I had to drive in front of one of these massive Desert Rambler onshore drilling rigs, at about 5km an hour, all the way from the Yemen border to central Oman, hundreds of kilometres. At night we slept and ate with the Bedouin. One of the camp hands had put a water melon into an Esky. I remember pulling out this massive water melon as we were sitting around the camp fire with the (Bedouin). I think they’d never seen anything like it. It was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Just seeing those guys, their eyes, when they saw this massive water melon. It was a long way from Australia.
What is the biggest challenge in setting up a new company?
Being able to harness the best things of the culture of the existing (Apache) entity. The previous brand, had been here a long time and we wanted to make sure all the things that worked, the culture that made the company successful, that we brought those things into the new company. My challenge is to harness the best of that and leverage the deep experience of the people we have in Quadrant. The (Apache) business unit, was already run fiercely autonomously, so the transition process has been quite simple. All the people are local (and) we did retain two of the important expats who moved over to stay with Quadrant, (exploration director) Fred Weir and (reservoir engineering director) Craig Marshall.
How did you establish Quadrant’s new culture?
We made sure we didn’t lose anything that made us successful (here), being agile, being able to maximise returns from marginal assets, that’s always been a fundamental strength of the (Apache) organisation. We also engaged with the whole (700-strong) team to identify the values and define the new culture to make sure all the themes, the values that people wanted and made us successful were retained. It worked out really well. We have it down to four elements that underpin the business — performance, people, partners and protection.
Do you use social media?
I have just taken up Twitter, I use it to follow news feeds and rugby league and that sort of thing. (At Quadrant) we are going to sit down and have a look at our philosophy on social media. We are only in our second week, and we are privately owned.
What do you do in your spare time?
I spend time with my wife Linda and our two boys (aged 12 and 13). I used to play (rugby) union and touch football but as my body starts to object to these things ... I have just taken up clay pigeon shooting, with a couple of friends. I like that it’s more of a mental game than a physical one, of concentration and consistency. You are always chasing your best.
Favourite holiday destination?
I am a Queenslander so I’m always keen to get back to my childhood home on the Sunshine Coast. For short breaks, I really like going down south here in WA. The favourite overseas destination with my wife and kids would be Paris. We spent a year there while I worked for Schlumberger.
What was the last book you read?
(Legendary US Air Force pilot) Chuck Yeager’s biography. He accomplished more in his life than most people.
Can Perth become a genuine global oil and hub?
Resources companies and service providers have made significant investments in Perth, setting up and some even establishing technology centres, so I think that is a step in the right direction. Perth offers a great lifestyle, it’s a good business choice for the industry, particularly for people with young families so that is a good way of retaining and attracting talent. It will be interesting to see (progress given) the little bit of a recession here with commodity prices flattening things out. I certainly think we are on the right trajectory. I really hope Perth does continue what is going on and there is more investment in those structural things that will make it a hub that ranks up there with Aberdeen and Houston.
