Tony Yates, Consultant to the Oil Industry. Tony holds a Master Mariners Class 1 Certificate of Competency and sailed on tankers for 13 years. He subsequently worked as a marine technical surveyor in the U.S., before joining an International inspection company where he served as Regional Manager for the U.S. Eastern Seaboard for several years. He returned to the UK in order to take up a position with BP's Cargo Assurance (Loss Control) team.

Over recent years Tony held a number of managerial roles and retired as Head of Operations for BP Oil International Ltd in March 2014.