Volcanic ash may have delayed John Jordan’s familiarisation visit to ASCO in Aberdeen, but ASCO’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Americas region is looking forward to taking the helm in his new role as soon as possible.

Native American John hails originally from Atlanta, Georgia, although his impressive career in the oil industry has taken him all over the world. 

John started his professional life as a management trainee with The Western Company in Houston, working his way up through the ranks over the next 9 years and completing an MBA on the way, to eventually become President in 1991. The company was sold to BJ Services in 1995 for $500 million which, while a successful transaction for all parties. John admits ‘”felt like the end of the world as it was the first and the only company I had worked for.”

The experience gained, however, left John with solid experience of extracting the best out of a business and positioning it for growth. The knowledge  has underpinned his career as he continued to work for a number of prestigious oil service companies, with the focus on increasing profitability and expansion. His most recent position was CEO Group/Executive Director for Energy Cranes International/Sparrows Offshore where he led a management team that built the company significantly both organically and through acquisition before concluding a successful sale for £142 million in 2008.

Growth of ASCO’s international business is the key to the company’s future direction.  “The structure of ASCO Group has been evolving over recent years,” explained ASCO Group CEO, Billy Allan. “Towards the end of 2009, we created a new EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) entity led by Derek Smith to achieve greater efficiency in our operations in these regions, and we may look at a similar role for Australia in the future.  The Americas is also a key region for growth for ASCO both organically and by acquisition. John’s experience and knowledge of the market will help us to deliver this, and we are delighted that he has agreed to join the senior team.”

John’s focus will be on ASCO’s North and South American logistics and international freight forwarding operations, and he is looking forward to the role:

“Having finally managed to get to ASCO HQ in Aberdeen, I’m concentrating on getting a feel for the culture, the business strategy and the competition. There are challenges out there but they need to be viewed as opportunities. We need to look at some of the UK business models and how they translate to the U.S market as there are cultural differences in the way we do things. I’m looking forward to some exciting and rewarding times with ASCO.”