Rod Allan began his career with Arctec Canada in Montreal immediately after graduation from U of M, with a focus on Arctic marine systems through full and model scale testing. Work tasks related to offshore drilling in Canada eventually led to a naval architect position with Reading & Bates Drilling Co. in Houston, where he was Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services at the time the company was acquired by Transocean Sedco Forex.
During this tenure, he participated in all aspects of marine design and operations of mobile offshore drilling units (MODU’s), with strong experience in station keeping, transportation, construction, and unfortunately at times, salvage. He applied much of this experience to new designs, particularly semisubmersibles and drill ships. Assignments with the new Transocean organization included management of the company’s core engineering experts, technical direction of the Europe and Africa Business Unit (including a tough few years stationed in Paris), running the Newbuild Engineering group for the most recent series of five drill ships built at DSME, and most recently, leading the development of the companies technical capabilities and business development in Arctic Drilling Solutions.
Rod has stayed active with SNAME for most of his professional career, from technical paper authorship at Annual meetings and OTC, to serving on many Sectional and Notional Committees and working groups. A highlight of these volunteer efforts was his SNAME appointment to the OTC Board of Directors, where he was elected to serve as Chairman for two years. Direct involvement in OTC committees has spanned 30 years, most recently as part of the program committee for the new Arctic Technology Conference.
As the offshore sector of the industry has expanded, SNAME found the need to have all the various related activities under a single entity, the Offshore Activities Steering Committee, which Rod has chaired for the past three years. This group promotes the industry sector through education, volunteerism, and coordination of the many diverse activities. With regards to SNAME as an organization, Rod can be quoted as saying “more doors have been opened for me by the conduits provided from professional society activities than any single job, position, or assignment.”
|