Monday, December 06, 2004

Dow-n but not out

I felt for an ex-colleague Chris Huntley who is now the financial press contact for Dow Chemical Co. Dow picked up some negative karma through picking up Union Carbide. A hoaxer pretending to be from Dow was shown to apologise for the Bhopal accident, a potentially huge liability with an adverse implications for shareholders.

Back in the day when I got my first taste of PR, I worked during the summer holidays at the Point of Ayr gas terminal run by BHP, Chris headed up the communications team there. It was facility that demonstrated a number of innovations bringing down the cost of running 'marginal' oil and gas fields. We hosted visitors from Russia that BHP wanted to befriend, local residents unhappy on us being neighbours with their mobile homes, school parties and influencers in the community like Probus groups.

Both of us had moved on and lost contact, though the internet is a great thing for keeping an eye on the progress of others.