Tribute to Former WTCA Chairman Bryan Montgomery

The following tribute to Mr. Montgomery was written by Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) President and CEO Doug Ducate.

The passing of Bryan Montgomery is both a personal and professional loss. On the personal side, 35 years ago I found myself leading the expansion of a domestic exhibition program into the global arena long before I was ready for such responsibility. But being young and self-confident and riding a wave of domestic success, it was only in my most quiet moments (frequently on those overnight flights) that I admitted my insecurity.

I first met Bryan Montgomery at the Andry Montgomery Group’s Manchester Square office in London to have discussions about possible business arrangements regarding numerous events in the oil-producing provinces around the world. I realized later he must have instantly seen through the veneer and recognized how much help we needed in order to be successful. And for more than 30 years after that first meeting, Bryan and his company provided that help from London to Bahrain to Beijing, and in the process made the Society of Petroleum Engineers one of the premier, American-based associations to successfully produce oil and gas events around the world.

On the professional level, our industry has lost a true statesman. In all of the years I knew him, I never heard him raise his voice, lose his temper or show a lack of control. While he was an Englishman, he became a citizen of the world in the sense that he respected every culture, every religion, different political philosophies and even different value systems. He was an ardent reader always eager to learn how other people thought and felt and why.His statesmanship allowed him to break a long-standing tradition in UFI as he became the first Brit to serve as Chairman. That paved the way for his protégé, Sandy Angus, to be the second several years later. And that, in turn, afforded the opportunity for an American to Chair UFI this last year…an unthinkable possibility until Bryan opened the door. During Bryan’s term on the CEIR Board, he brought an international perspective that helped CEIR look at things differently. He was instrumental in generating widespread global attention and acclaim for CEIR research. And he was always quick to praise the CEIR leadership for being visionaries in sponsoring research and creating tools like The Census and The Index, that quietly set the example for what the industry needed to do in other corners of the world. And while he yearned for CEIR to take their efforts global, he applauded the leadership for being prudently realistic about using CEIR’s limited resources. And so we say thank you and goodbye to a leader, a statesman, a patron of the arts, a second generation exhibition organizer, a mentor to many and a friend to all who knew him…until we meet again.

Doug Ducate January 2009