Mark Quartermain

The president of Shell Energy NorthAmerica and head of Shell EnergyTrading explains to Roderick Bruce whyhe has known since childhood that hewanted to work in oil

Since childhood, Mark Quartermain, who in May became president of Shell Energy North America and head of UK-based Shell Energy Trading, knew exactly what job he wanted to do. "When I was 13 my father sat me down and said I should try to pick a career early on," he says. "He suggested three options: banking, computing or oil, all of which were big news in the UK at the time. I picked oil."

Graduating in 1983 with a degree in chemical engineering, he spent the first six years of his career at Shell