Bristow Helicopters has named its new director who will drive forward the company’s European growth plans. Mike Imlach, who was previously Director of Bristow’s Nigerian Business Unit, has been appointed as the Director of European Operations. He will oversee all commercial and operational aspects of the company’s activities in the UK, Norway and Holland.

Mike, an Aberdeen University graduate, has more than 30 years experience of working within the oil and gas and helicopter industries. Prior to joining Bristow in 2008, he held a number of senior positions with global oil and gas service companies in the North Sea, Europe, Egypt and Africa. He will be based at Bristow’s European headquarters in Aberdeen.

Richard Burman, Bristow’s Senior Vice President of Operations, said: “Mike’s extensive management experience will be central to helping us achieve our European ambitions and I’m delighted to have him onboard.

“He played an instrumental role in Nigeria where he oversaw significant safety and training initiatives as well as increasing our market share there by 20%. We look forward to working with him and the European team to ensure we continue to drive up standards and provide the highest level of service to our passengers and clients.”

Mike replaces John Cloggie, who has become Director of Bristow’s Centralised Operations Business Unit. Mike’s promotion is one of a number of senior appointments Bristow has made to strengthen its global offering.

Captain Tim Glasspool becomes Head of Flight Operations, Europe. Having been Chief Pilot from 2006 to 2009, Tim was appointed Interim Head of Flight Operations, Europe, last year.

Tim has flown more than 9000 hours on AS332L and EC225 helicopters from Aberdeen, the Shetland Islands, Norway and Holland, and he has played an active role in safety and development projects.

Rory Stewart, with more than 10 years of flying experience at Bristow and Chief Pilot since 2008 will support Tim’s day to day activities after being promoted to Deputy Head of Flight Operations, (Europe).

Matt Rhodes has been promoted to Chief Pilot, previously a Line Training Captain with the company.

Moving from Bristow’s Scatsta base in Shetland, Glenn Oldbury takes on the role of Chief Training Captain S92 (UK AOC Operations), replacing Tim Rolfe who becomes Global Training Manager and forms part of Bristow’s Global Standards team.

Jon Oakey joins Bristow as European Financial Controller and Peter Gay has been appointed Head of Commercial in Europe replacing Alan Grant who moves to Deputy Director, West Africa with Akin Oni named as the region’s new Director.

About Bristow Helicopters
Bristow Helicopters is an affiliated company of Bristow Group Inc., a leading provider of helicopter services to the worldwide offshore energy industry based on the number of aircraft operated through its subsidiaries, affiliates, and joint ventures. The Company has major operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, and operations in most of the other major offshore oil and gas producing regions of the world, including Alaska, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, and Trinidad.