A young north-east professional has been recognised as an Emerging Leader at a global oil spill conference taking place in New Orleans this week.

Robbie Smith-Sinclair, 25, Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator with Oldmeldrum-based industrial cleaning specialists Sureclean, is attending this year’s 25th International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC), where he has been selected to take part in the inaugural Emerging Leaders Program.

The initiative offers companies the chance to recognise their high-potential professionals in the early stages of their career. The program, sponsored by Shell, provides opportunities for them to make new connections and dive deeper into operational lessons and technology advances to facilitate their development in oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response.

As an Emerging Leader, Robbie will have access to exclusive networking opportunities with industry leaders in the oil spill response community as well as the chance to take part in mentoring initiatives with senior professionals to help develop leadership skills.

Simon Gibb, Sureclean CEO, said Robbie had established himself as a key team member since coming on board as a trainee two years ago, “Robbie is a highly motivated employee and takes a ‘can-do’ approach to every challenge. We have been impressed with his confidence, professionalism, and his natural ability to create robust and positive business relationships, which has been remarkable.

“Robbie enjoys what he does and his enthusiasm for his role inspires his colleagues and customers who benefit from working alongside an ambitious and driven young leader.”

After leaving Glasgow with a Degree in International Markets & Consumer Behaviour in 2020, Robbie learned the ropes at Sureclean as Trainee Project Manager in 2022. However, his talent for networking and ability to bring a youthful, renewed vigour to the team, saw him transition to the role of Sales & Marketing Coordinator where he has steered a number of key projects to support business growth. 

Robbie’s career highlights to date include helping drive Sureclean’s relaunch campaign during the first half of 2023 to deliver transformative industrial cleaning services. Recently, he played a key role in the launch of Sureclean’s environmental response sub-brand, Sureresponse, a dedicated environmental response division signalling a renewed commitment to environmental sustainability. Sureresponse has in-house capability to support local, national, and global environmental incident responses and is equipped to respond to incidents around the globe. 

Robbie, who is from Laurencekirk, commented on his budding career success, “I’m delighted to have been recognised as an Emerging Leader by my colleagues who have been incredibly supportive of my goals to develop my skillsets and enhance my knowledge of the industrial cleaning market. I’m motivated by advancement and moving at pace and my role at Sureclean allows me to bring fresh ideas to the table to drive change and embrace innovation.”

Robbie is currently undertaking a Business Sustainability Management course at the University of Cambridge. With the goal of understanding global economic, social, and environmental pressures on businesses, the course will provide valuable insights to enhance Sureclean’s environmental sustainability targets across its operations.

Oldmeldrum-based Sureclean, previously NRC UK, was bought over from American-based US Ecology with new owner, Simon Gibb, rebranding the firm back to its original name, Sureclean. With the largest fleet of industrial equipment in the UK and multi-skilled engineers to support its operations, the company provides technical industrial cleaning services to the local and global energy sector.