Bill Gammell

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Sir Bill Gammell is the founder (in 1988) and non-executive chairman of Scottish oil company Cairn Energy. He was also non-executive chairman of subsidiary Cairn India Limited, which was bought out by Vedanta in July 2011. He is an ex-Scotland rugby internationalist and was awarded a knighthood in 2006 for services to industry in Scotland. He is also chairman of the Winning Scotland Foundation, a director of SportScotland and Glasgow 2014 Limited (the company overseeing the 2014 Commonwealth games. He is a member of the British Olympic Advisory Board.[1]

Childhood friend of Bush and Blair

Bill Gammell is a close childhood friend of both Tony Blair and George W Bush. Whilst Gammell and Blair became close friends at Fettes College public school;[2] the Bush family, according to the memoirs of former British Ambassador to the US Christopher Meyer, spent holidays in Scotland with the Gammells.[3] George W Bush was reportedly a guest at Bill Gammell's wedding in 1983,[2] and the Gammells were instrumental in forming the relationship between Bush and Blair: Meyer recalls that Bush claimed he had "heard through his Scottish friends, the Gammells, that Tony Blair was a good man."[4]

Other government links

He is a member of the UK government's Asia Task Force and the UK India Business Council. [1]

Resources

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Cairn Energy website About, Board of DirectorsAccessed 16/8/11
  2. 2.0 2.1 Severin Carrell, 'A brief history of Sir Bill Gammell', The Guardian, 24 August 2010, accessed 18 August 2011
  3. Meyer, C., (2006), DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Run-Up to the Iraq War, p. 151, Orion Publishing
  4. Meyer, C., (2006), DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Run-Up to the Iraq War, p. 153, Orion Publishing