SIR Ian Wood, who has built Aberdeen-based oil services company John Wood Group into a business with 36,000 employees in 50 countries, last night received the prestigious President's Award from the member-funded Scottish Council for Development and Industry.

The award was presented to Sir Ian by SCDI for his “lifetime contribution to Scotland’s economy”. The SCDI noted Sir Ian had built Wood Group into a major contributor to Scotland’s economy, through global exports and the number of people it employs.

Sir Ian received his award on a good night for the oil sector at SCDI’s Scotland International Awards in Glasgow.

The event was attended by about 700 senior leaders from business and civic Scotland, who heard former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan deliver the keynote speech.

Reflecting on his award, Sir Ian called last night for “much more focus” on the private, as opposed to the public sector, and hammered home his wish to see “Scotland significantly reindustrialised”. He also urged a global vision for a “traditionally parochial nation now living in a global environment”, while emphasising the importance of developing Scotland as a world energy player and of creating a “world-renowned business school”.

And, with an eye to the “shining example” of Scottish industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Sir Ian urged Scotland’s businessmen and women to direct “your philanthropic efforts to create economic activity and sustainable employment in the huge black holes of poverty, disease and misery that exist across the developing world”.

He said: “My generation has failed miserably in the challenge of enhancing the harmony, prosperity and wellbeing of mankind. It’s not that we don’t care – most people do care – it’s that we see the problem as too complex and somehow not really relevant to us. We persuade ourselves we can’t do anything about it – when that’s simply not true.

“We are all part of the same humanity and we must contribute to that humanity as well as taking from it.”

Sir Ian thanked his colleagues at Wood Group for “winning this award for me”.

He said: “The award is in respect of ‘a unique record of contribution to Scotland’s economy’ but in fact, intriguingly, I feel that this has been achieved by Wood Group diversifying successfully internationally.”

Sir Ian added: “In the last 40 years, I have seen the John Wood Group grow from a standing start to now having 36,000 people working in 50 countries round the world. I have watched Scottish business and industry over that period making progress, but enjoying mixed fortune.”

Of Wood Group’s onshore workforce, 4718 employees are in Scotland, with 4143 of them in Aberdeen. A further 2798 work offshore, but are employed from Aberdeen. The overall UK workforce is 10,472.

Optima Solutions of Aberdeen, which provides oil rig cooling services around the world, was honoured with the Deloitte International Award for People Development.

The BP Award for Outstanding International Achievement in the oil and gas industry went to qedi, another Aberdeen-based company. SCDI noted that qedi, which specialises in oil and gas completion and commissioning services, had boosted its turnover from £10 million to more than £60m in the last six years.

Away from the oil industry, but still in the energy sector, Voith Hydro Wavegen of Inverness won the Accenture Award for Outstanding International Achievement in Green Energy.

The firm develops and supplies wave-energy technology equipment.

Gentech International, based at Girvan in Ayrshire and owned by US company Measurement Specialties Inc, won the Royal Bank of Scotland Award for Best International Business. Gentech designs and manufactures liquid-level sensors, position sensors, flow switches, and optical sensors for the automotive, agriculture, construction, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, food and drink, recreation, and water treatment sectors.

SCDI highlighted Gentech’s creation of a sensor aimed at helping reduce diesel road vehicles’ carbon emissions in line with recent legislation.

Life sciences company Omega Diagnostics, based at Alva in Clackmannanshire, won the Brodies LLP International Award for Innovation in Product. SCDI described Omega as a “market leader in developing and producing in-vitro diagnostic test kits used in hospitals around the world to diagnose a whole range of diseases and infections”.

SCDI chief executive Lesley Sawers said: “In (this) economic climate we must look outwards (and) build on our world-renowned Scottish brand.”