Senior Advisor
CEO Emeritus
Bristow Group
Bill joined Bristow in 2004 as CEO, President and a board member after a 32-year career in the offshore oil & gas drilling business. He is currently a senior adivsor and CEO Emeritus.
He began his career with Western Oceanic, Inc., as a Floorman, Derrickman, and Driller in the North Sea out of Aberdeen, Scotland, and then Rig Manager, Operations Manager, and VP – Domestic Operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Bill co-founded Chiles Drilling Company in 1977 (“Chiles I”), which later became Chiles Offshore Corporation, which was acquired by Noble Drilling in 1994. After leaving Chiles Offshore, he founded Southwestern Offshore Corporation, operating ten offshore drilling units in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Middle East, and Trinidad. He served as CEO & President until Southwestern was acquired by Cliffs Drilling Company in 1996. After Bill left Cliffs, he founded Chiles Offshore Inc. (“Chiles II”), and built and operated five ultra-premium jackup offshore drilling units targeting very deep, high temperature and high pressure drilling projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Trinidad. The company was merged into ENSCO International Incorporated in 2002, and Bill became Vice President of Business Development for ENSCO. In 2003, he joined Grey Wolf Inc., a publicly traded land oil & gas drilling company, as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer until joining Bristow.
He also serves on the boards of Basic Energy Services, Gulf Island Fabricators Inc., the National Ocean Industries Association where he was the 2012 Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee, and the Offshore Energy Museum.
Bill is graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Petroleum Land Management, and earned an MBA at Southern Methodist University. He is also a former trustee of Awty International School and Episcopal High School, and currently serves on the Vestry and is the most recent past Senior Warden of Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church. Bill and his wife, Wendy, reside in Houston and have five children.
