Interviewer: Tyler Priest

Affiliation: University of Houston

Leon Vincken was educated in the Netherlands in mechanical engineering, and joined Shell Oil in 1955. Vincent was immediately sent to Venezuela, where he spent the next decade of his career. Upon returning to Europe, Vincent was assigned to the research section of Shell, on a p project working to determine the ultimate depth limit of a human diver. Two and a half years later, Vincken was dispatched again—this time to the South China Sea. Come 1975, he returned to The Hague to head up Shell’s offshore research group. Vincent retired from Shell in 1989, and began his own senior management consultancy firm, before joining a commercial bank.