Sir Ian Wood

Ian Clark Wood was born in Aberdeen on 21 July 1942, the middle of three children of John Wood and Margaret Wood (nee Clark). He grew up with his sisters Meg and Lorna in a fishing family, at a time when Aberdeen was suffering Luftwaffe air raids during the Second World War. The family business, John Wood and Son, had been founded by his grandfather William Wood. His father John bought out a partner in a ship repair business that diversified into owning trawlers, so Ian was raised, as the Guardian put it, in an environment of business and enterprise. As a student in the 1960s he watched the firm's trawlers on the front line of Britain's cod wars with Iceland; on one occasion a Wood trawler was rammed by an Icelandic gunboat and towed to Reykjavik with its crew.

Wood was educated at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen and then at the University of Aberdeen, where he studied psychology and graduated in 1964 with first-class honours. He intended to become a lecturer but was drawn instead into the family business. He was a keen sportsman, a noted schoolboy golfer and a rugby player who turned out for the North and Midlands District XV, including against the All Blacks at Pittodrie Stadium in 1972. He later received honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen (1984), Robert Gordon University (1998), Glasgow Caledonian University (2002) and Heriot-Watt University (2012).

In 1967, aged 25, Wood became managing director of John Wood and Son, a firm of around 600 staff servicing the fishing fleets of Aberdeen and Peterhead. The first major North Sea oil find came in 1970, and a 1972 trip to Texas organised by Maitland Mackie convinced him that the company had to reinvent itself. "I came back and said: 'We've got it wrong. We're going to have to form new companies and take on new people,'" he recalled. His father was sceptical, but in 1973 Wood Group took an eye-catching stand at the first Offshore Europe exhibition and won its first contacts with oil companies.

Growth was rapid. By the late 1970s turnover was around 50 million pounds, the workforce passed 2,000 across sites from Peterhead and Shetland to Swansea and Dublin, and in 1980 John Wood Group Engineering Ltd was launched and John Wood House opened at Greenwell Road, East Tullos, after contracts with Shell and at Sullom Voe. In 1988 the Piper Alpha disaster killed 167 men, including 39 Wood Group employees, and Wood became a determined champion of offshore safety.

Wood Group was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2002, when revenues exceeded 900 million pounds. It employed more than 20,000 people in 44 countries by 2007 and about 41,000 people in 50 countries when he announced his retirement as chairman in July 2012, having stepped down as chief executive in 2006. Allister Langlands succeeded him as chairman. He remained chairman of the family's legacy business, the Don Fishing Company Ltd, until his death. Wood Group was later acquired by the Dubai-based company Sidara.

Wood chaired Scottish Enterprise, Scotland's main economic development agency, and was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1988 to 1997. He was chancellor of Robert Gordon University from 2004 to 2021, and the Sir Ian Wood Building at its Garthdee campus opened in 2015.

Commissioned by the UK government in June 2013, his UK Continental Shelf Maximising Recovery Review (the Wood Review) was published on 24 February 2014. It called for a shared strategy of Maximising Economic Recovery and a better-resourced arm's-length regulator; the government accepted it and created the Oil and Gas Authority, headquartered in Aberdeen, now the North Sea Transition Authority. Offshore Energies UK chief executive David Whitehouse said the sector would be very different without his vision. In the same year he chaired the Commission for Developing Scotland's Young Workforce, whose final report of 3 June 2014 made 39 recommendations to strengthen vocational education and youth employment.

After selling a 10 percent stake in Wood Group in 2007, Wood used part of the proceeds to establish the Wood Family Trust, renamed The Wood Foundation in 2014. It applies venture philanthropy, investing money and expertise for systemic change, with two main strands: developing young people in Scotland and making markets work for the poor in sub-Saharan Africa, through work with smallholder tea farmers in Tanzania and Rwanda and vanilla producers in Uganda. Its Youth and Philanthropy Initiative has introduced hundreds of thousands of Scottish pupils to volunteering and charitable giving.

In 2015 Wood signed the Giving Pledge, committing more than half his wealth to philanthropy, and the Foundation launched Opportunity North East (ONE) with 64 million pounds to grow sectors beyond oil and gas, including digital technology, life sciences and food and drink. He and Lady Helen funded the 10 million pound Lady Helen Parking Centre at Foresterhill, opened in 2018, and were patrons of the Meningitis Research Foundation after their son Garreth contracted meningitis aged 16. In 2019 he received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In October 2025 he pledged 40 million pounds, split equally between ETZ Ltd and ONE, to accelerate the region's transition to renewable energy.

Wood married Helen Macrae in 1970, and they were married for 55 years. They had three sons, Nicholas (Nic), Graham and Garreth, all of whom built businesses of their own, and seven grandchildren according to the family's announcement. The couple had homes in Aberdeen and at Loch Tummel in Perthshire. Known as a workaholic, he was also described as a man who wore his wealth lightly, eschewing private jets and grand headquarters. In his spare time he loved rugby and golf, and his favourite golfing partner was his wife, his ambition being "to keep ahead of Helen".

Wood believed deeply in Aberdeen and in sharing good fortune. He argued that the North Sea still held substantial reserves that should be recovered, while also pressing for a just transition to renewable energy that protected jobs and the supply chain. During the 2014 Scottish independence referendum he intervened to question assumptions about future oil and gas revenues. In October 2025 he warned that the region's economy was at "a critical juncture" amid concerning job losses. He saw business involvement in education as self-interest rather than charity, writing that it was very much in industry's interest to maximise the skills of young people.

His 2008 pledge of 50 million pounds to raise Union Terrace Gardens to street level as a civic square split Aberdeen. Supporters said it would revitalise the city centre, while opponents campaigned to keep the sunken Victorian gardens; the scheme won a public referendum in early 2012 but the council voted to abandon it that summer. In 2011 Wood Group moved North Sea staff to an offshore employment company, a step criticised by Scottish politicians. As chancellor of Robert Gordon University he conferred an honorary degree on Donald Trump in 2010, which was later revoked after Trump's 2015 remarks about Muslims. His Energy Transition Zone plans at Aberdeen's south harbour drew a legal challenge from local people over the loss of part of St Fittick's Park; the Court of Session refused the petition in May 2025.

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1982, at 40 one of the youngest north-east recipients. Knight Bachelor, 1994 New Year Honours, for services to the energy industry. Voted Scotland's top boss in a 1995 survey of senior executives. Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oil and Gas UK Awards, 2012. Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), 2016, for services to the oil and gas industry. Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT), 2018, Scotland's highest order of chivalry. Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, 2019. Honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University, Glasgow Caledonian University and Heriot-Watt University.

Wood was a regular presence in Scottish business coverage for half a century, from Press and Journal photographs at Offshore Europe in the 1980s to BBC and Sky News interviews about oil reserves during the 2014 independence referendum. Recorded interviews include his Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy film (2019), Robert Gordon University and Offshore Europe 50th anniversary conversations, and RwandaTV footage of his meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He appeared regularly on the Sunday Times Rich List, ranking third in Scotland in 2026 with a fortune of almost 2 billion pounds.

Wood is credited with helping establish Aberdeen as Europe's energy capital and Scotland as a world centre of energy expertise. Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander called him "one of Scotland's finest sons" and "a giant of Scottish business, philanthropy and society". His legacy runs through the North Sea Transition Authority born of the Wood Review, Developing the Young Workforce in Scottish schools, The Wood Foundation's work in Scotland and Africa, Opportunity North East, the Energy Transition Zone and the Lady Helen Parking Centre at Foresterhill.

Sir Ian Wood died peacefully at his home in Aberdeen on 26 July 2026, aged 84, a few days after his birthday. His family announced his death on 27 July, describing him as "a devoted husband, father, grandfather and friend". The cause of death was not made public. Tributes came from First Minister John Swinney, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, Aberdeen South MP Douglas Lumsden, Offshore Energies UK, Robert Gordon University and Aberdeen FC. He was survived by Lady Helen, their three sons and their grandchildren. Details of his resting place were not made public.