I'm Chris Usher, I work for ION Geophysical and we are based in Houston, Texas. We've got offices in many parts of the world including Edinburgh, Scotland. We are a technology company in the EMP segment. We have a host of offerings, software being one of them and we have a range of different software products again, most of those coming out of Edinburgh, so it's kind of a real nice link between the devices and the software. Kind of like the 'Internet of Things' for offshore seismic exploration and it's been in place many, many years before that term became popular.
For me, as Chief Operating Officer, I've really enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh. It's the real, y'know, 'where the rubber hits the road' and where the people build our products. I like being on the Royal Mile, it's a 10 minute taxi ride down to the office at Logie Mill. So I enjoy walking up the hill, whether it's summer or winter, It's always fantastic to walk up and see what's going on and dip into the shops, or the little pubs, or whatever!
We're a very diverse staff in Edinburgh. People who have worked for the company for 30 years, to people that are fresh out of school. Compared to other parts of the world, you have really serious people, but with the typical sense of humour you find in the UK and Scotland - which I really enjoy. But, there's definitely a work ethic of working really hard, being really passionate about our products. But also innovation, y'know, Marlin is a fantastically innovative product.
Edinburgh is kind of unique. It's an old, historic city with all the new amenities, from the expansion with the financial sector and software is big in Edinburgh now. Edinburgh is the right place for us to develop our software products. Y'know, it's in the middle of the Oil & Gas sector, it's a dynamic location for employees, it's affordable - it's world-class.
It was the right decision for us to have our business in Edinburgh, grow it in Edinburgh and tap into the support we've had locally, in tough times, um, and go forward in good times in a very positive way.