Adam Sprei turned his back on a burgeoning career with one of the world’s best-known companies to set up his own business – and has gone on to great success even in the most testing of times for the global energy markets.
After seven years with Shell, Adam (OE 1993-2000) was successfully climbing the corporate ladder when, in 2012, he decided to establish Alchemy Energy Partners (AEP), an executive search & human capital consultancy working across international oil, gas and energy markets.
Looking back, he recognises this as a defining moment: “We dared to take a risk and make it happen – leaving one of the globe’s largest companies with a clear career path and stability to start a business from scratch. We have built an ‘industry disrupter’ that has grown rapidly in the midst of an oil price crash which has seen many of our competitors cease trading.”
Despite the demands of AEP and of spending time with his young family, Adam manages to make a contribution in another worthwhile area. “An important subject to me is supporting dyslexia and dyspraxia initiatives – conditions which are very often invisible, yet with life-changing impacts. Aged 21, I was diagnosed as dyslexic and dyspraxic. Having made some progress mastering how to manage this for myself, I am involved with mentoring young professionals and am in the process of writing a book aimed at helping dyslexics/dyspraxics better understand themselves and thereafter realise their full potential entitled Unlock the Gift,” he explains.
At QE, Adam forged a number of enduring friendships. A few of his most cherished memories include: “Air flow football matches at lunchtime which, at the time, were to us as competitive and as important as World Cup finals” and “Seeing a ghost on the back playing field after a concert one evening”.
He also remembers with gratitude the impact that Eric Houston had on his life. Mr Houston taught at QE from 1976 until 2010, when he retired as Second Master. He is now a Governor. “He was the first person to teach me about facing my fears head-on, forcing me to read a 30-line poem standing in front of the class, which, as a bad stammerer at the time, was quite a horrendous ordeal, yet helped build resilience that has served me well.”
After reading Commerce at Birmingham, Adam took an MSc in International Management at King’s College London in 2003–2004, writing his thesis on global gas markets. He has since undertaken executive education at two of the world’s best-known business schools, Harvard Business School and INSEAD.
Adam joined Shell in 2004, initially as a Market Analyst, then an Energy Economist before becoming a Strategy Advisor and, in 2008, a General Manager, Portfolio & Business Development.
Then came the decision to start Alchemy Energy Partners. The contrast was stark: “I was working initially from a laptop and iPhone, and from an office the size of a toilet! We were riding the entrepreneurial rollercoaster from very challenging 16+ hour days to truly high highs.”
“Now, more than five years later, we have been fortunate to grow AEP into one of the globe’s most respected consultancies of its type, working with some of the biggest names in oil and gas worldwide.”
Some 95 per cent of the firm’s clients are outside Europe, so Adam spends a great deal of time on the phone and travelling to the US, Canada, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Adam lists some of the high points with the firm:
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- “Being a truly valued partner to industry captains, and working with companies who have grown from new entrants to industry leaders with our support – those you see on Bloomberg and read about in the FT;
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- “Designing new oil & gas companies, hiring in the CEOs and executive teams and then ‘building out’ the organisations;
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- “AEP managing the organisational build out (for the last four years) for the world’s largest integrated gas & LNG (liquefied natural gas) project (total circa $100 billion investment);
Adam is confident about the firm’s future: “In its first five years, AEP established its reputation and has developed a platform for growth. However, I believe we have not even ‘scratched the surface’ yet. In the next five years we will continue to grow. We will soon open an office in Houston, US, and we will grow further into key strategic markets, whilst diversifying into new sectors, principally power, renewables and ‘clean-tech.’ And this year, we are launching the world’s first oil & gas industry television network and an oil, gas & energy digital and brand consultancy.”
Adam met his wife, Ellie, at the age of 18 and they have been together ever since. “I am blessed to have an incredible wife and life partner, who has always been amazingly supportive, but especially through the early years of building a business and the extensive travelling.
“In 2013, we were blessed to welcome Sadie and Charlotte, our twin daughters, into the world. They were born ten weeks early, with one only deciding to breathe 11 minutes after being born, being kept in hospital for six weeks in incubators – a quite ‘hairy’ experience. My real motivation is to be a good example to them – they are now four, healthy, happy and thriving and can work an iPad better than I can. The reality is, nothing else but family, health and friends is important to me. Time is the only thing that cannot be bought or replaced, so it is important to make the best use of it and to live life with passion and purpose.”
With a business to run and two young daughters, Adam has little capacity to keep up with his many previous hobbies, but he does enjoy keeping fit, travelling, reading, food and wine, getting out into the country to relax and “generally all things family-related”. He lives in the Mill Hill and Totteridge area, “dangerously close to a lovely 400-year-old pub”.
He remains firm friends with most of the “close brotherhood” that he and his contemporaries developed at QE. They include Jamie Binstock; Simon Walton (“now brother-in-law, married to Ellie’s sister,”) and Daniel Travers. “We see each other regularly, share holidays, and Dan’s son is in the same class as my daughters at school.”