13 April 2015
Members of the Geological Society of London have voted Malcolm Brown, Executive Vice President of Exploration at BG Group, to be their next President, following a consultative ballot. He will serve for a year as President Designate, before taking over from current President Professor David Manning in June 2016.
Mr Brown, who received an Honorary Doctorate from Kingston University in 2007, has worked at BG Group (and previously British Gas) for over 30 years, leading its exploration efforts for much of the last two decades. After graduating from Kingston Polytechnic in 1976, he worked in Libya and Saudi Arabia before completing an MSc in Petroleum Geology at Imperial College in 1982. He is currently on the Advisory Boards of Energy Geoscience International and the Sustainable Gas Institute at Imperial College.
‘It is a great honour to have been voted President designate by the Society’s Fellowship’ says Mr Brown, who has been a Fellow of the Society since 1982, and a Chartered Geologist since 2013. ‘The Geological Society is admired as both a learned society and a professional body, providing impartial advice to those in government and other decision makers, and is a preeminent forum for industry and academic debate. I am committed to maintaining scientific excellence in all its activities during my Presidency.’
Seven new Council members were also selected in the ballot, and will be formally elected at the Society’s Annual General Meeting on 3 June 2015. They include Tricia Henton, who will serve as Diversity Champion, following the Society’s commitment to the Science Council’s Declaration on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in 2014.
‘It is fitting that, in the first elections since we signed up to the Declaration, the Society should have elected its highest proportion of female Council Members since its formation, with 10 women to 13 men,’ says Ms Henton, who was Director of Environment and Business at the Environment Agency until 2010, and holds a non-executive position on the Coal Authority. ‘I am looking forward to working with the Society to ensure diversity remains a strategic priority.’
The new President Designate and Council Members will take up their roles following a formal vote at the Society’s Annual General Meeting on 3 June.