Mr. David Bird is a global energy industry executive with extensive leadership experience across upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas operations, refining, petrochemicals, and LNG, spanning multiple continents.

He served as Chief Executive Officer of OQ8 (Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Company) in Oman — a USD 9.5 billion independent joint venture between Oman and Kuwait, and the largest collaborative investment between two GCC countries. As CEO, Mr. Bird delivered the pace-setting, flawless start-up of the refinery, terminal, pipeline, and utilities, achieving sustained full production within six months of mechanical completion and within budget. He designed, built, and recruited the corporate and technical organisation of approximately 750 employees, and oversaw USD 4.2 billion in project financing, successfully completing the Lender Reliability Test and releasing over USD 4 billion in shareholder guarantees.

Previously, Mr. Bird served as Senior Vice President, Production Operations at Santos (Australia, 2018–2022), where he was accountable for the company’s national portfolio of oil and gas production, midstream pipeline and LNG, and downstream refinery operations (2,500 staff). He delivered record production alongside best-ever safety and cost performance, generating over USD 1.5 billion in free cash flow, and led the integration of ConocoPhillips Australia into Santos.

From 2015 to 2018, he held the role of Vice President, Operations and Supply Chain at Shell Australia, with end-to-end accountability for Shell’s operated assets, including the flagship USD 12 billion Prelude FLNG mega-project (3,500 staff, USD 15 billion revenue). He implemented a Continuous Improvement/LEAN culture delivering USD 70 million per year in cost savings and was a recognised champion of diversity and reconciliation.

Mr. Bird’s earlier career at Shell included senior leadership roles as Head of Operations in Singapore (Shell’s largest fully-complex refinery and petrochemical site, >500k bbls/day), Commissioning & Start-Up Manager for the greenfield USD 10 billion Motiva Port Arthur refinery expansion in the USA, Sales & Supply Manager for Asia, Pacific & Middle East, and Plant Manager at Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest refinery in South Africa.

He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Master of Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours) from Imperial College London, and completed the INSEAD International Directors Programme. Mr. Bird is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), and a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.