A first-class psychology graduate who expected to enter university life, Sir Ian Wood instead spent one summer in his family's Aberdeen trawler business and changed the course of his working life. Wood, who turned that modest marine concern into a global energy-services company and later channelled his fortune into education and development work, died at his home in Aberdeen on July 26, 2026. He was 84, according to Holyrood, which reported his family's announcement.

That turn began in 1964. Wood had completed a first-class psychology degree at the University of Aberdeen and had been offered an assistant lectureship. A summer helping his father put him in charge of the trawler operation instead. A later The Independent profile described how he agreed to stay for a year, found scope to reshape the business and soon abandoned the academic route. By 1967 he was running the group, with its fishing fleet and workforce already substantially enlarged.

The decisive expansion came after Wood saw Houston's oil economy in the early 1970s. He returned convinced that Aberdeen companies needed new skills and structures for the North Sea era. He invested in a Torry shipyard and built services around fabrication, accommodation, transport and engineering. As offshore fields multiplied, the family enterprise evolved into Wood Group and carried out energy work around the world. Wood guided the business for decades, remained chief executive until 2006 and retired as chairman in 2012.

His influence then moved from a company boardroom into national policy. The UK government asked him in 2013 to lead an independent review of recovery from the UK Continental Shelf. Published on February 24, 2014, the Wood Review called for a new strategy, a stronger arm's-length regulator, added regulatory powers and sector-specific plans. GOV.UK records that ministers accepted all four recommendations and created the implementation team that helped establish the Oil and Gas Authority in Aberdeen.

Recognition followed across several decades. Wood was knighted in 1994, appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 2016 and installed as a Knight of the Thistle at St Giles' Cathedral in 2018. Education was also a sustained public role. He served for 16 years as chancellor of Robert Gordon University, presiding over graduation ceremonies for tens of thousands of students before stepping down in 2021.

Wood and his family established The Wood Foundation in 2007. The Wood Foundation describes work spanning Scotland and Africa: education initiatives such as the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, Excelerate and RAiSE at home, and venture philanthropy designed to strengthen enterprises and livelihoods in Africa. After 18 years as chair, Wood continued as founder and president while his son Garreth became chairman.

The public record of companies, reviews and honours sat beside a long family life. Wood and Lady Helen were married for 55 years, and they had three sons, Nic, Graham and Garreth, and seven grandchildren. In announcing his death, the family placed the emphasis on his "kindness, generosity, determination and unwavering commitment to his family."

His work remains visible in the international business he built from Aberdeen's maritime economy, in the regulatory structure shaped by the Wood Review, in the graduates he welcomed at Robert Gordon University, and in Foundation programmes operating from Scottish classrooms to African enterprises. Together, those institutions carry forward Wood's practical conviction that resources and organisation could be used to create opportunity.