“I started my career in 1977 as a geologist with Decca Survey, working offshore on shallow, high-resolution seismic surveys; I was always the only woman on board and I think I was the first female geologist to work on seismic boats in the North Sea”, says Jane Whaley, former editor of the GEO ExPro magazine.
Surveying, seismic interpretation and geological data analysis remained the backbone of Jane’s career until 2004. It brought her to the Middle
East, Gulf of Mexico and Ireland before she returned to the UK for IHS. “When our group at IHS was made redundant, it was time to do something
new”, Jane adds.
“I met the GEO ExPro team at Petex in November 2004, not long after the magazine had been launched. I was looking for something new and interesting
and approached the team on the stand. I liked the look of the product, with a broad range of topics and good quality illustrations, so was very pleased
when Halfdan Carstens followed up the meeting by asking me to write a profile of well-known geologist Dick Selley – who turned out to be a dream- nterviewee for a rookie magazine writer!
“I tried hard to add diversity to the magazine, as the industry is often seen as ‘male and pale.”
For the next six years, I was associate editor for the EMEA region with the magazine, writing a number of articles on a variety of topics for each edition.” “When I took on the role of editor in 2010, I did not feel there wasanything I urgently needed to change, as I inherited an excellent format from Halfdan. The thing I really concentrated on was maintaining and building an international focus, as the magazine sometimes had too much of a NW Europe flavour at times.”
Resistance
“When I started as editor in 2010, there was resistance in the industry to the growth of sustainable energy solutions and we were worried that including discussions on the implications of climate change would be unpopular with readers or advertisers”, continues Jane.
“That attitude changed as people realised that the energy transition was an opportunity, not an existential threat, and I was able to include more articles on the topic and on the openings available for geoscientists in the new energy world.”
Conferences
“Attending conferences was vital and it enabled me both to source material from around the world and to keep up to date with the latest technical developments. I scrutinised programmes for interesting content and attended talks on the exhibition floor, but many fascinating articles came simply from talking to people at our stand. “I also tried hard to add diversity to the magazine, as the industry is often seen as ‘male and pale’.”
Here’s to the next 20!
“I am very happy to see the magazine continue with such great, wide-ranging content and up-to-the-minute technical coverage for geologists throughout the entire energy industry. There are still lots of fine illustrations and great covers, though maybe not as many maps as I would like and
I do miss a regular geotourism for a bit of armchair travel”, concludes Jane.
“And, I have to admit, I’m not so keen on the brown theme throughout. But I am still immensely proud of this magazine and the contributions I made over its first 20 volumes. Congratulations to the team and here’s to the next 20!”