When Jeanette Forbes first moved to Aberdeen she had no job, house or school lined up for her children.
Now nearly 40 years later she has become one of the most successful and well-known businesswomen in the north-east.
The 66-year-old started her own information technology company PCL Group working from her dining room table back in 2000.
The business has steadily grown year-on-year and is now active across five industry sectors in 27 countries.
In 2017 Jeanette founded her second business, Aberdeen wine bar Grape & Grain, and very soon will open the doors to her new Mediterranean restaurant in Thistle Street.
Chance meeting led Jeanette to Aberdeen
Jeanette’s career has taken a different route to what she expected.
Having left school at the age of 15-years-old she decided she wanted to be a nurse.
But it was a chance meeting with a young soldier at the age of 16 that led her to the Granite City.
The grandmother-of-four said: “Lots of people ask how I ended up in Aberdeen. I met a soldier, a Scottish soldier.
“My father was in the Army. He used to bring home soldiers who were homesick and my mother would cook them Sunday lunch before he’d take them back to barracks.
“This particular day there was one who caught my eye and that’s just the way it went.”
‘We had no job, home or school for the children’
Jeannette and Alan got married at the age of 18 and ended up moving to Osnabruck in Germany in 1972 where she spent 15 years.
But in 1987 Jeanette and Alan, along with their children Christopher and Joanne, had to move to Aberdeen following the death of Alan’s dad.
Jeanette, who was made an OBE in 2020 for her services to business, technology, and charity, said: “My father-in-law died very suddenly leaving my late husbands elderly mother on her own.
“The decision was taken we would move back to Aberdeen at that time so my husband bought himself out the army.
“When we arrived in Aberdeen we had no jobs, school for the children or a home. There was nothing.
“I had visited Aberdeen before and I loved the city. I fell in love with it.
“Aberdeen was a thriving place. You had to walk on the road to get past people on the pavements.
“We still had Bakers, BHS, Woolworths and Norco. The city was thriving with all these places.”
‘As one door closed another opened’
Jeanette’s first job was working for Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in the signals department.
She said: “Before the children came along I was working in the signals whilst living in Germany.
“I applied for a job at ARI and as soon as they knew I had the phonetic alphabet they put me on the helicopter landings.
“I worked there for more than two years.”
Jeanette’s next move was to join Pentex Oil, based in The Athenaeum, as a receptionist where she worked for three and a half years before being made redundant.
She said: “I had only been made redundant for like and hour or so when I got a call from a company called PSL in Portlethen owned by Tommy Dreelan.
“He said they were looking for a receptionist and would I go and work for them. So I landed a job very quickly. I’ve been lucky like that way.
“As one door has closed, another one has opened. It’s been bizarre at times. I’m like pinch me is this really happening.”
Passion for computers started to show
It was during her time at Pentex Oil that Jeanette started taking a keen interest in computers.
This was something that led her moving from a receptionist position at PSL to systems administrator.
She said: “I had a knack with computers. That’s how it all started.
“There was a guy in HR at Pentex who told me I had a knack for it. I had a fascination with computing. What made them work. If I pressed this button what would happen.
“Way back in the early days I was very much self taught.
“At PSL I was promoted to systems administrator.
“That’s when I went away and studied. I realised I wouldn’t get very far if I didn’t do that.
“I went to Aberdeen college to do a HND in computing. I trained on a part-time basis while trying to look after the family and hold down a full-time job.”
‘I wanted to take better control of my destiny’
Jeanette spent seven years at PSL before being headhunted by FMC Technip to write an asset tracking database for Schlumberger.
It was supposed to be a two-year contract but Jeanette completed it in nine months.
She then got headhunted and joined ESL Group as systems manager where she spent four years before it was sold.
It was then in 2000 Jeanette made the decision to start PCL with the aim of providing total IT services under one roof.
She said: “The driving force to start my own business was that I always thought I could do it better than anyone else.
“I wanted to take a better control of my own destiny.
“I’d been made redundant twice and I thought there’s not going to be a third time.
“I started PCL in March 2000 and started the business from my dining room table in Portlethen.
“Back then there was no women running IT businesses and certainly not locally.
“I thought if I could incorporate everything in to one building then that problem becomes my problem and we have to fix it.
“Just a couple of days before I started I read an article in the P&J about another company doing exactly what I wanted to do.”
Challenges and resistance
But Jeanette’s drive and determination saw her press on with her business and her ambition to also work in the oil and gas sector.
She said: “There was a lot of challenges and resistance because of my gender. The perception at that time, not now I must stress, was why would you want to work on a rig or boat.
“It was a very male domain. There was nothing there that said it was a sector which welcomed women.
“You were left on your own.
“I had to start to think how a man would think to integrate and get myself accepted.
“There was lots of challenges.”
Jeanette did find herself falling victim to the odd prank offshore. Including her coveralls getting stapled together at her feet.
She said: “There was lots of challenges and things I still laugh about.
“I couldn’t push my leg in and saw me struggling but these were the funny things for want of a better word.
“I grew used to it and paid no attention.”
PCL growth
The first office for PCL was based in Portlethen’s Badentoy Park.
Jeanette and Alan, who died 13 years ago aged 54, spent two years working from home before moving to new premises.
During that time PCL welcomed five members of staff and was ready to move to Regent Quay where it was based for 11 years.
It was three years ago when Jeanette moved to a four-storey building in Golden Square where she now employs 22 people.
Since then turnover has continued to grow and Jeanette is keen to keep adding more staff.
Start of Grape & Grain
As well as running PCL Jeanette is the owner of wine bar Grape & Grain which opened in 2017.
Speaking about her decision to open the Thistle Street based wine bar Jeanette said: “I believe in giving back to the city. I’m a great believer in that.
“Alan had died and I had many years where I wouldn’t go out socialising, I didn’t even do the business dinners, because I just felt it wasn’t right.
“I spent a lot of time on my own and being isolated. Although I was invited out by close friends I didn’t do it. But when I did I didn’t enjoy it.
“I thought there was nowhere in Aberdeen I could just go and have a nice drink with a nice atmosphere.
“So I took out the lease for Grape & Grain and it sat for six months we me wondering what I was going to do with the space.
“My daughter who runs our financials was perpetually saying to me to hurry up and make up my mind because it was costing us money.
“We didn’t borrow any money from the bank. We did it out of the money from PCL. It was tough because there’s only a certain amount of money to work with.
“The night before we opened we had £91 in the bank. I’ve never looked back.”
Host of business experience
Jeanette, who serves as the Scottish Chambers of Commerce Ambassador for Pakistan, is also very close to opening a Mediterranean restaurant in Thistle Street.
She said: “The design is something different for Aberdeen. I’m super excited that I’m opening another venue. Again I’m giving back to the city.
“Make it a city we are really proud of again.”
Jeanette also holds senior management positions in two other young companies. She is chief executive of Blue Gentoo and a director of OMMICA, both of which are involved in developing ground-breaking products and services for the energy technology sector.
Her impressive list of achievements also includes her managing the development team who created the world’s fastest flight route algorithm.
She has won numerous accolades recognising her role as a business leader, entrepreneur and mentor, as well as her commitment to encouraging and promoting career opportunities for women in the energy, technology and hospitality sectors.
Reflecting on her career Jeanette admits to sometimes suffering from imposter syndrome.
She said: “Everything I’ve done is really scary.
“I remember at a careers event in my school and we were all paired up with someone and you had to write what you think the person next to you would be.
“The girl had written I would be the CEO of BT. Now I’m not the CEO but I’m not far off.
“I’m head of my own business, I’m in technology, we do telephone as well as cabling so it wasn’t to far away.
“All those years ago how could she have known where I’d end up.
“There are days where I have massive imposter syndrome because I have to challenge myself on it.”
OBE recognition
A highlight of Jeanette’s career was being made an OBE in 2020 for her services to business, technology, and charity.
But to start with she didn’t believe it.
Jeanette said: “I received an email saying I’d be put forward for a OBE. I read it and thought I don’t think so.
“I put it in to my spam email. A few days later I was speaking to my son and told him.
“We laugh about it now and he told me to fill the form out.
“I never look for recognition but sometimes it comes my way and I’m incredibly humbled by it.
“I would never in my wildest dreams have thought I would’ve achieved what I have.
“I’ve done it because I have a great team at the back of me. When you’ve got people like that and show leadership it’s the making of a great company.
“I have been really lucky. I can’t thank this city enough for what it’s given me and the opportunities.
“It was never intentional to open my own business and run global work scopes.”
Conversation