Douglas Arent

Doug Arent is Executive Director of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He specializes in strategic planning and financial analysis competencies; clean energy technologies and energy and water issues; and international and governmental policies. In addition to his NREL responsibilities, Arent is Sr. Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and an author and expert reviewer for the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy, a member of the US Government Review Panel for the IPCC Reports on Climate Change and was recently appointed as a Coordinating Lead Author for the 5th Assessment Report.

Arent was appointed in 2008 to serve on the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Arent is on the Executive Council of the U.S. Association of Energy Economists, a Member of the Keystone Energy Board and is on the Advisory Board of E+Co, a public purpose investment company that supports sustainable development across the globe. He serves on the Chancellor’s Committee on Energy, Environment and Sustainability Carbon Neutrality Group, University of Colorado. Arent was the chair of the Quantitative Work Group in support of the Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Council of the Western Governor’s Association.

Prior to coming to his current position, Arent was Director of the Strategic Energy Analysis Center at NREL from 2006-1010. Prior to joining NREL, he was a management consultant to clean energy companies, providing strategy, development and market counsel. Previous positions held include: Director of strategic marketing and business development at Network Photonics; Director of Media Gateway Products and strategic planning manager at Lucent Technologies (now Avaya); and Vice president of business development for Amonix Inc.

Dr. Arent has a Ph.D. from Princeton University, an MBA from Regis University, and a bachelor’s of science from Harvey Mudd College in California.

Eric Axford

Eric Axford was appointed senior vice president, Operations Support in July 2009. His role is to drive operational excellence -- safe, reliable and environmentally responsible operations -- across Suncor's integrated businesses, with responsibility for the company's Environment, Health and Safety and Sustainable Development functions, as well as corporate centres of excellence for maintenance and reliability, technical services and standards, business and process improvement, manufacturing and operations analysis and workplace learning and competency.

Prior to assuming this role, Eric served as vice president, Extraction Operations in Suncor's oil sands business. Since joining Suncor in 1996, he has held a number of senior strategic planning, commercial and operational leadership roles in the company's upstream and downstream business operations and corporate head office. Before joining Suncor, he held senior policy roles with the government of the Province of Alberta.

Eric is an active supporter of the United Way and is a past chair of Suncor’s Calgary campaign. He has served as a board member on the Northern Lights Health Region and is active volunteering for various charitable initiatives in the community and lending a hand in support of the educational and recreational activities of his daughter.

Eric has a Bachelors of Arts degree in economics from the University of Calgary and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Alberta.

He and his wife Diane have one daughter and the family enjoys golf, skiing, boating and other recreation activities.

Francisco Barnés

Mr. Barnés completed his bachelorship in chemical engineering in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and obtained his master’s degree and his doctorate in chemical engineering in the University of California at Berkeley.

In 1968 he began his academic activities at UNAM, where he was Dean of the School of Chemistry, Secretary General and President. He is currently a full time professor on leave of absence.

Within the public service he has occupied the positions of Technical Secretary of the Mexican Petrochemical Commission, President of the Mexican Petroleum Institute, Under Secretary for Energy Policies and Technological Development and Under Secretary for Hydrocarbons.

He is the author of several technical and scientific articles and essays and the co-author of the book Process Engineering edited by UNAM Press and Editorial Alhambra.

He has been awarded several academic and professional acknowledgements: Science and Technology Award, granted by Banco Nacional de Mexico, 1975, 1980 and 1982; Technical Chemistry Award granted by Celanese, 1980; National Chemistry Award granted by the Mexican Chemical Society, 1994; Professional Excellence Award granted by the Mexican Federation of Chemistry Professionals, 1995; Doctor Honoris Causa granted by the National Institute Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, 1998; and, Victor Marquez Dominguez Award granted by the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1999.

Dr. Barnés is a member the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers, where he served as President; the Mexican Chemical Society; the National College of Chemical Engineers and Chemists, where he served as President; the Mexican Academy of Engineering and the Mexican Association for Energy and Sustainable Development.

He is Chair of the Mexican Association of Energy Economics and Vice Chair for North America in the World Energy Council.

Currently he serves as Commissioner in the Mexican Energy Regulatory Commission.

Dave Collyer

Biography coming.

Joe Dion

Mr. Dion is President and CEO of Calgary based Frog Lake Energy Resources Corp., a wholly-owned First Nations mid-size oil and gas company operating on Frog Lake First Nations lands in partnership with Twin Butte Energy Ltd and CNRL. Prior to becoming President of Frog Lake Energy Resources Corp. Joe worked as a consultant for First Nations in Canada and Indian Tribes and Alaskan Eskimo Groups in the USA negotiating Impact Benefit Agreements and Joint Ventures with energy companies and governments. He comes from a family of hereditary Chiefs as Great-grandson to Chief Big Bear and served as Chief of Kehewin Cree Nation and Grand Chief for Alberta in the late 1970s. He established Dion Resources Inc. in 1980 and was involved in constitutional issues, self-government matters for First Nations and for the most part consulted and advised First Nations on energy related matters. He founded the Indian Resource Council of Canada in 1984 which now represents over 100 First Nations in Canada and was instrumental in establishing Indian Oil and Gas Canada, a Federal Government Agency responsible for managing oil and gas development on Indian Reserve lands.

Joseph A. Doucet

Dr. Doucet holds the position of Enbridge Professor of Energy Policy in the University of Alberta’s School of Business. In the School of Business he directs a specialized MBA program in natural resources and energy as well as the Center for applied business research in energy and the environment (CABREE).

Dr. Doucet is currently the President of the Canadian affiliate of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). Dr. Doucet’s research interests are in energy and regulatory economics and policy, with particular interest in electricity markets. His research has appeared in journals such as The Energy Journal, Energy Economics, the Journal of Regulatory Economics and the Canadian Journal of Economics. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Regulatory Economics, and between 2000 and 2006 he was Editor of the journal Energy Studies Review.

Dr Doucet was appointed Director of the University of Alberta’s School of Energy and the Environment (SEE) in December of 2006.

Hadi Dowlatabadi

Since childhood I have been fascinated by the frontiers in technology. At university I came to understand uncertainty in the performance and economics of unproven technology and the impact of these on choices and public policy. I tried to apply systematic thinking to energy technology evaluation and policy. Soon, I learned that technical performance and economics need to be augmented with environmental and social impacts of technologies. That journey continues both in providing opportunities to learn from and to apply past lessons in looking at issues in new domains. Hence, my work can be characterized as explorations into understanding how these issues interact dynamically and what we don't (or can't) know about them before we have to make decisions.

This journey has taken me from a degree in physics to lots of places where I have no training and no right to be poking my nose into. But curiosity and a desire to see if "we can do better" have been too strong a driver to keep me nearer to my disciplinary home.

Since graduating in 1984, I have had the pleasure of working at Carnegie Mellon University (1984-7, 1991-2001), Resources for the Future (1987-91) and the Rockefeller Foundation (1988-9). I have learned much in each of these places and owe a great deal to my mentors: Granger Morgan, Lester Lave, Baruch Fischhoff, Ray Kopp, Paul Portney, John Ahearne, Jack Meyer and Ken Prewitt.

In 2001, I was pleased to be offered a Canada Research Chair in Applied Mathematics, Integrated Assessment and Global Change at UBC. I guess the title says it all. I build quantitative models and love to puzzle out problems like climate change.

Joseph M. Dukert

Joseph M. Dukert, Immediate Past-President and a Senior Fellow of USAEE, is an independent energy analyst with special expertise in North America’s energy situation. His latest book, Energy, was published in 2009 as part of the business and economics series of Greenwood Publishers. It deals with the problems of reconciling the potentially conflicting policy goals of adequacy, affordability, reliability, environmental acceptability, and time-deadlines in an increasingly interdependent world; and the book is being used as a text in an increasing number of universities.

Dr. Dukert is a Senior Associate (non-resident) with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and he wrote the chapter on North America in the 2007 CSIS book, Energy Cooperation in the Western Hemisphere: Benefits and Impediments. Over many years he has been involved in the development of critical U.S. government documents and reports, including the national energy policies published under a succession of Presidents from both political parties.

He has been a senior advisor to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation and a consultant to the International Energy Agency. He has lectured at a number of universities in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, as well as at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame (magna cum laude); and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies.

Simon Dyer

Simon Dyer is the Oil Sands Program Director at the Pembina Institute. Simon is a registered professional biologist and has worked on land-use issues in western Canada since 1999. Simon represented the Pembina Institute on the Sustainable Ecosystems Working Group of the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA). Simon holds a Master of Science in environmental biology and ecology from the University of Alberta, and a Master of Arts in natural sciences from Cambridge University. Simon is the co-author of Death by a Thousand Cuts: Impacts of In-situ Oil Sands Development on Alberta's Boreal Forest and Haste Makes Waste: The Need for a New Oil Sands Tenure Regime.

R. Dean Foreman

Dean is the Chief Economist at Talisman Energy. Prior to Talisman Energy he was the Senior Economist in ExxonMobil's Corporate Planning Department, focused on long-range global economic and energy market assessments. Prior to joining ExxonMobil in 2002, Dean was Director of Economics and Competitive Analysis for Verizon Corporation. He holds a Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Florida and has broad experience in corporate planning, regulatory, antitrust and forecasting. Dean's research interests include applied industrial organization, international and regulatory economics. He has published articles in several professional journals, including the Journal of Economics and Business, Journal of Regulatory Economics, Information Economics and Policy, and Telecommunications Policy.

Roland R. George

Mr. George holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University, a Master's degree in Economics from Carleton University and a Master of Business Administration degree from École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Montreal.

Mr. George joined the National Energy Board (NEB) as a full-time Board Member in August 2006. For the previous 30 years, Mr. George worked primarily in the private energy sector. Most recently, he was senior principal at Purvin & Gertz, an international energy consulting firm. There he led the North American natural gas practice. Mr. George has also held positions with the Canadian Energy Research Institute, Gaz Métropolitain, Téléglobe Canada and Canadian Pacific Limited.

Mr. George is a member of the Governance Committee, one of the NEB's standing committees. He is also a member of several committees of the the Canadian Association of Members of Public Utility Tribunals, including the Executive Committee and Chair of the Education Committee, as well as a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Centre for Public Utilities' Advisory Council, the International Association of Energy Economists, the Economics Society of Calgary, and the Canadian Association of Business Economists.

Mary Griffiths

In 2009 Mary Griffiths, PhD retired from the Pembina Institute where, as Senior Policy Analyst with the Energy Solutions team, she was engaged in efforts to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel energy development. She was the lead author of more than ten reports, including “Protecting Water, Producing Gas” and “Heating Up in Alberta: Climate Change, Energy Development and Water.” She served on various Alberta government committees dealing with the environmental aspects of energy development.

Mary now continues her environmental work as a part-time consultant with MG Environmental and she is a Senior Associate with Green Planet Communications Inc. She obtained her B.A. and doctorate at the University of Exeter, UK, where she taught geography. In 2002, Mary received a Canadian Environment Award for her work on clean air issues and she is also the recipient of a 2005 Alberta Centennial Medal.

Howard Gruenspecht

Over the past 25 years, Howard K. Gruenspecht has worked extensively on electricity policy issues, including restructuring and reliability, regulations affecting motor fuels and vehicles, energy-related environmental issues, and economy-wide energy modeling. Before joining EIA, he was a Resident Scholar at Resources for the Future. From 1993 to 2000, Howard served as Director of Economic, Electricity and Natural Gas Analysis in the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Policy, having originally come to DOE in 1991 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic and Environmental Policy. His accomplishments as a career senior executive at DOE have been recognized with three Presidential Rank Awards.

Prior to his service at DOE, Howard was Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers (1989-1991), with primary responsibilities in the areas of environment, energy, regulation, and international trade. His other professional experience includes service as a faculty member at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University (1981-1988), Economic Adviser to the Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission (1988-1989), and Assistant Director, Economics and Business, on the White House Domestic Policy Staff (1978-1979).

Howard received his B.A. from McGill University in 1975 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1982.

Kelly Gunsch

Kelly Gunsch was appointed Vice-President Market Services for the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) in June 2009 and is responsible for various market, process and policy initiatives within the organization.

Previously, Ms. Gunsch was Chief Strategy Officer for the Calgary Homeless Foundation. Prior to that, she held the position of Vice President of Commercial Operations at TransAlta, after spending 13 years of her career at that organization in progressively more senior roles in the areas of Commercial and Portfolio Management, Corporate Development and Regulatory Affairs.

Ms. Gunsch has extensive experience and skills in the areas of leadership, strategic planning and management, and policy development and implementation.

Kelly holds a bachelor of science and a masters in Economics from the University of Calgary.

Mark K. Jaccard

Mark has been professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, since 1986 – interrupted from 1992-97 while he served as Chair and CEO of the British Columbia Utilities Commission. His PhD is from the Energy Economics and Policy Institute at the University of Grenoble. Internationally, Mark is known for his work since the 1990s on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Nobel Peace Prize in 2007), the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (currently co-chair of task force for sustainable coal use), and the Global Energy Assessment (convening lead author for sustainable energy policy). He is a member of Canada’s National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy and a research fellow at the CD Howe Institute. He has over 90 academic publications. His 2005 book, Sustainable Fossil Fuels, won the Donner Prize for best policy book in Canada.

David H. Knapp

David Knapp is Senior Editor, Global Oil Markets, for Energy Intelligence Group. He is editor of Oil Market Intelligence and co-editor of the Energy Intelligence Briefing Service. He also serves as Managing Director of the Energy Intelligence Research Division. Before joining Energy Intelligence in late 2000, Dr. Knapp was a senior official with the International Energy Agency and edited of the IEA’s Monthly Oil Market Report through much of the 1990s. He has analyzed energy markets for nearly 40 years in the international, government, business and financial sectors as Energy Economist and Energy Team Leader for the prestigious Wall Street banking and investment firm of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in the 1980s after starting his career at the Federal Energy Administration and Chase Manhattan Bank’s Energy Economics Division. Dr. Knapp holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara and is a member of numerous professional organizations in the energy area. Dr. Knapp is a Senior Fellow of the US Association for Energy Economics and a Board Member of the New York Energy Forum. He was awarded the IAEE 2007 Award for Excellence in Written Journalism.

Raymond J. Kopp

Raymond Kopp holds Ph.D. and MA degrees in economics and an undergraduate degree in finance. He has been a member of the RFF research staff since 1977 and has held a variety of management positions within the institution. Kopp's interest in environmental policy began in the late 1970s, when he developed techniques to measure the effect of pollution control regulations on the economic efficiency of steam electric power generation. He then led the first examination of the cost of major U.S. environmental regulations in a full, general equilibrium, dynamic context by using an approach that is now widely accepted as state-of-the-art in cost-benefit analysis. During his career Kopp has specialized in the analysis of environmental and natural resource issues with a focus on Federal regulatory activity. He is an expert in techniques of assigning value to environmental and natural resources that do not have market prices, which is fundamental to cost-benefit analysis and the assessment of damages to natural resources. Kopp's current research interests focus on the design of domestic and international polices to combat climate change.

Vello Kuuskraa

Mr. Kuuskraa has over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and is a recognized expert on the technologies of unconventional oil and gas resources, enhanced oil recovery and CO2 sequestration. Mr. Kuuskraa is currently the Society of Petroleum Engineers Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of Enhanced Oil Recovery. He has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from North Carolina State University and an MBA (Highest Distinction) from the Wharton Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the Board of Directors of Southwestern Energy Company and is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor that recognizes contributions by the nation’s ethnic minorities.

Lester Lave

Lester B. Lave is University Professor and Higgins Professor of Economics and Finance at Carnegie Mellon University, with appointments in the Business School, Engineering School and the Public Policy School. Reed College granted him a B.A. and Harvard University with a Ph.D in Economics. His research has focused on health, safety, and environmental issues, from the effect of air pollution on mortality to estimating the benefits and costs of automobile safety standards, risk analysis of carcinogenic chemicals, testing the carcinogenicity of chemicals, valuing natural resources and global climate change. As a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution from 1978-1982, he investigated a variety of regulatory and risk analysis issues. Lave has served as a consultant to a large number of federal and state agencies, as well as corporations. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, is a past president of the Society for Risk Analysis, and has served on many committees of the National Academy of Sciences, AAAS, American Medical Association, and Office of Technology Assessment.

Lave is the Director of the CMU university-wide Green Design Institute (Practical Pollution Prevention). This program is focused on using pollution prevention and sustainable development to boost economic development. The program has partnerships with leading companies to address these issues and design products and processes for the environment. The program has received extensive support from IBM, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, Texaco, the American Plastics Council, AT&T, Xerox, NCR, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Union Carbide, Alcoa, and other industrial companies. Lave is also a principal in the Carnegie Mellon Global Change Center sponsored by NSF and Co-director of The Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.

Melody Lepine

Ms. Lepine is a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation and was raised in Alberta’s oldest settlement, Fort Chipewyan, Alberta. Her family and community teachings in environmental values and stewardship at a young age motivated Ms. Lepine to advance her education and study environmental conservation sciences at the University of Alberta. This balance in teachings of both traditional knowledge and western science has become Ms. Lepine’s key strength in her professional career. Ms. Lepine has been working directly for her First Nation for the past seven years, first as the environmental coordinator and now currently as the Director of the Government and Industry Relations department. The GIR is mandated to manage the resource development consultation with government and industry in what is now becoming to be one of the most industrial impacted regions in the world. As she leads her GIR team, Ms Lepine is to oversee and manage complex and challenging environmental, social and cultural issues that the Mikisew Cree is inundated with. During her time with the GIR, Ms. Lepine has been managing numerous files for the Miksiew Cree some of which include five oil sands regulatory interventions, developing the Mikisew Cree consultation protocol, four traditional land use studies, numerous oil sands application reviews, initiating a community based environmental monitoring program and multiple government policy initiatives.

Honourable Ron Liepert

Ron Liepert has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta since 2004, for the constituency of Calgary-West. On January 15th, 2010, he was sworn in as Minister of Energy. He had previously served as Minister of Education and Minister of Health and Wellness.

Mr. Liepert was born and raised in Saltcoats, Saskatchewan, where his primary education began in a one-room elementary school. After his senior high schooling he moved to Alberta, where in 1971 he enrolled in the Columbia School of Broadcasting. His work in media between 1972 and 1980 included covering Royal tours of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.

In 1980 Premier Lougheed offered Mr. Liepert the position of press secretary, which he accepted and served until 1985. As the press secretary he participated in a number of federal-provincial conferences and was at the side of the Premier during the Constitutional Accord of 1982 and the energy negotiations of the early 1980s. Mr. Liepert served as the trade director of Western U.S. Operations for Alberta Economic Development from 1986 to 1991.

In 1991 he joined Telus and was involved in the company's negotiations to purchase Ed Tel and the BC Tel merger. He also contributed to the rebranding of AGT to Telus. Mr. Liepert spent 2000 to 2004 running his own public relations/communications consulting business and operating a childcare centre in downtown Calgary.

Returning to his interest in politics, Mr. Liepert sought and won the riding of Calgary-West in 2004. Over the course of his first two years as an MLA he chaired the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Committee, co-chaired the Film Advisory Council and was a member of the Local Authorities Elections Act special committee review team.

Mark Lively

Mark Lively designs financial models that deal with electricity and natural gas, primarily pricing models. He earned a SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an SM in Management from MIT's Sloan School. He worked for American Electric Power Service Corporation in New York City for five years and for Ernst & Ernst/Whinney/Young in its Washington Utility Group for 15 years. He has testified before several commissions and has had assignments in Venezuela, Oman, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Turkmenistan, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. His Utility Economic Engineer title describes his work of engineering economic models dealing with utilities.

Matthew Machielse

Biography coming.

Kenneth B. Medlock III

Kenneth B. Medlock III is currently a Fellow in Energy Studies at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Rice University. He is a principal in the development of the Rice World Natural Gas Trade Model, which is aimed at assessing the future of LNG trade. Medlock’s research covers a wide range of topics in energy economics, such as domestic and international natural gas markets, choice in electricity generation capacity and the importance of diversification, gasoline markets, energy commodity price relationships, transportation, modeling national oil company behavior, economic development and energy demand, forecasting energy demand, and energy use and the environment. Medlock’s research has been published in academic journals, book chapters, and industry periodicals. Recent contributions include “LNG Trading Evolves” in the Fundamentals of the World Gas Industry (Petroleum Economist, 2006), and “The Baker Institute World Gas Trade Model” and “Political and Economic Influences on the Future World Market for Natural Gas” in Natural Gas and Geopolitics: 1970-2040 (Cambridge University Press, 2006). He won the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Best Paper of the Year in the Energy Journal in 2001 (joint with Ron Soligo). Medlock has also spoken at multiple academic and professional conferences on energy issues. For the Department of Economics, Medlock teaches courses in Macroeconomic Theory and Energy Economics.

Prior to returning to Rice, Medlock held the position of corporate consultant at El Paso Energy Corporation, where he was responsible for fundamental analysis of North American natural gas, petroleum, and power markets. Medlock also served as the lead modeler on the Modeling Subgroup of the National Petroleum Council for 2003 study of long-term natural gas markets in North America, and was a contributing author to the California Energy Commission’s and Western Interstate Energy Board’s Western Natural Gas Assessment in 2005. He is also participating in the 2006 National Petroleum Council Global Oil and Gas study. From May 2000 to May 2001, Medlock held the MD Anderson Fellowship at the Baker Institute.

Medlock holds a PhD in economics from Rice University. His areas of specialization are in the fields of energy economics and policy, with interests in environmental economics, applied econometrics and applied microeconomics.

Art Meyer

Art Meyer is Senior Vice President, Major Projects with Enbridge, a Canadian company and leader in North American energy transportation and distribution. He is a member of the Enbridge Corporate Leadership Team.

Art has had a diversified career with Enbridge in corporate leadership roles and with subsidiary companies. Prior executive responsibilities have included Senior Vice President, Oil Sands Projects; Senior Vice President, Major Project Execution; President, Enbridge Gateway Pipelines Inc.; Vice President, Technology; President, Enbridge Wind Power Inc.; President, Enbridge Pipelines (Athabasca) Inc.; Vice President, Liquids Marketing; Vice President, Engineering; and General Manager, Enbridge Pipelines (Saskatchewan) Inc. Before joining Enbridge, he held positions of increasing responsibility with Trans Mountain Pipe Line Company Ltd. based in Vancouver.

Externally, Art has led initiatives with a number of organizations. He is a Board Member and immediate Past Chair of Pipeline Research Council International based near Washington D.C. and Board member of the International Pipeline Conference Foundation. Prior leadership roles have included President of the Alberta Chamber of Resources; Board Member, Canadian Energy Pipeline Association; Chair of the Canadian Standards Association Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry committee with oversight of Canada’s national pipeline standards; and Chair of the joint U.S. Industry and Government Steering Committee on Critical Pipeline Infrastructure and Research.

Art has also dedicated time to social and community interests. In 2009, he was named the Allard Chair in Business at MacEwan University and was appointed by the Alberta Government to the Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council. He has served in past roles as Board member, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation; Member, Industry Advisory Committee to Alberta Aboriginal Affairs; Co-chair, Senior Advisory Committee on Alberta Forest Biodiversity Monitoring; Board member, Edmonton Symphony and Concert Hall Foundations; and Board Member, Action for Healthy Communities. While supporting opportunities for First Nations, he was honored to receive a traditional aboriginal name and to later receive the Métis Nation Order of the Sash.

Art has lived and worked in a number of Canadian cities and travelled throughout North America and internationally. He is a registered Professional Engineer and member of both the Canadian and American Societies of Mechanical Engineers. Art is a graduate of the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration.

Randy Mikula

Randy Mikula is the leader of the Canadian federal government’s department of Natural Resources research effort on oil sands tailings, located at the CanmetENERGY laboratory in Devon, Alberta. With over 25 years in oil sands research, spanning the development of more efficient extraction processes, to more recently focusing on mitigating the environmental impact of oil sands development, Dr. Mikula leads one of the key activities in the 130 person CanmetENERGY oil sands research facility.

Projects have included fundamental support for pilot and commercial scale demonstrations of the gypsum consolidated tailings (CT) process, as well as work on carbon dioxide as a CT process aid. This research involves investigation of the fundamental chemistry of the carbon dioxide-clay interaction, including CT formation mechanisms and the potential for carbon dioxide sequestration. Tailings management is inextricably linked to water management and Dr. Mikula has participated in the development and large scale demonstration of a variety of novel tailings and water management strategies for surface mined oil sands.

Most recently, Dr. Mikula has coordinated the scientific program around development and pilot scale demonstration of centrifuged fluid fine tailings at Syncrude, a program that will likely grow to a commercial demonstration.

The link between tailings management and extraction recycle water means that Dr. Mikula also has significant experience in oil sands extraction. He has worked on oil sands extraction process chemistry for the slurry tank, hydrotransport, Clark, OSLO, Bitmin, and other novel extraction processes, one of which was patented and commercially implemented by Suncor.

Dr. Mikula led the technical program around the successful demonstration of a 20 ton per hour demonstration of Canadian hot water extraction technology for the extraction of Utah’s Asphalt ridge tar sands.

Dr. Mikula’s expertise in microscopy and fine particle characterization is widely recognized and has resulted in significant technical contributions to a variety of research projects outside of his extensive expertise in oil sands and heavy oil. The microscopy facility he established almost 20 years ago remains the focal point for the research programs in extraction and tailings that he oversees. He has served at various times on the executive of the local and national sections of the Microscopical Society of Canada and is currently treasurer of the Alberta section, vice president for the national society, and served as scientific chair for the 2007 MSC conference.

Randy Mikula has a BSc. in Chemistry, (magna cum laude) from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia (at the TRIUMF cyclotron). In 2003, Randy was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Chemistry.

Michal C. Moore

Michal C. Moore is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy at the University of Calgary in Alberta. He is the former Chief Economist at the National Renewable Laboratory in Golden Colorado, where he lead a research team engaged in examining over-the-horizon issues for the Department of Energy and developing new methods for cross-cutting analysis.

He is an economist and former regulator in the energy industry in California. Dr. Moore received his Bachelor of Science in Geology at Humboldt State University and a Master of Science from the Ecology Institute at the University of California at Davis in Land Economics. He obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge in England in Economics where he is a member of Darwin College.

He is a former Commissioner with the California Energy Commission, where he held the designated Economist position. In that role he oversaw market structure issues, pricing of electricity and natural gas and data collection for the Commission as presiding member of the Electricity and Natural Gas Committee. He directed the $2B US program to maintain and expand the renewable energy industry in the state and presided over many complex siting cases for new fossil fired generation.

Dr. Moore is an active researcher in the areas of urban open space and agricultural land conversion, local government fiscal impacts and the structure and rules of energy markets. He is an accomplished public speaker and participates in a wide variety of public forums ranging from energy and fiscal policy to land use.

Adele C. Morris

Adele Morris is a Fellow and Policy Director for Climate and Energy Economics at The Brookings Institution. Her expertise and interests include the economics of policies related to climate change, energy, natural resources, and public finance.

She joined Brookings in July 2008 from the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress, where she spent a year as a Senior Economist covering energy and climate issues.

Before the JEC, Adele served nine years with the U.S. Treasury Department as its chief natural resource economist, working on climate, energy, agriculture, and radio spectrum issues. On assignment to the U.S. Department of State in 2000, she was the lead U.S. negotiator on land use and forestry issues in the international climate change treaty process. Prior to joining the Treasury, she served as the Senior Economist for environmental affairs at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the development of the Kyoto Protocol. She began her career at the Office of Management and Budget, where she conducted regulatory oversight of agriculture and natural resource agencies. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University, an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Utah, and a B.A. from Rice University.

Andrew Nikiforuk

For the last two decades, Andrew Nikiforuk has written about energy, economics and the West for a variety of Canadian publications including The Walrus, Maclean's, Canadian Business, The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, Chatelaine, Georgia Straight, Equinox and Harrowsmith.

In the late 1990s, he investigated the social and ecological impacts of intensive livestock industries and the legacy of northern uranium mining for the Calgary Herald. His public policy position papers on water diversion in the Great Lakes (2004) and water, energy and North American integration (2007) for the Program on Water Issues at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre sparked both discussion and reform.

Nikiforuk’s journalism has won seven National Magazine Awards since 1989 and top honours for investigative writing from the Association of Canadian Journalists. His dramatic Alberta-based book, Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil, won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction in 2002. Pandemonium, which examines the impact of global trade on disease exchanges, received widespread national acclaim. His latest book, The Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent, examines the world’s largest energy project, and is a national best seller. It recently won the 2009 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award and was listed as a finalist for the Grantham Prize for Excellence In Reporting on the Environment.

Nikiforuk and his wife and three sons, Aidan, Keegan and Torin, live in Calgary, Alberta. Whether speaking or writing about melting glaciers, educational shams, peak oil, or the destruction of the boreal forest, Nikiforuk has earned a reputation as an honest and provocative voice in Canadian journalism.

Carlos Federico Petersen

Carlos Federico Petersen y Vom Bauer was recently appointed as Undersecretary of Energy Planning and Technology Development of the Ministry of Energy. He holds a Master and a PhD in Economics with a specialization in Macroeconomics and International Finances, from Columbia University. His major is also in Economics, from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

Carlos was formerly Chief of Staff at the Energy Minister Office, acting as Minister´s Advisor in economics, public policies, promotion of new investments and international affairs. He was previously General Director of International Affairs in the Ministry of Energy.

Among the several positions he has held in the financial sector are the following: Corporate Director of Finance and Commercial at CASA DE MONEDA DE MÉXICO (Money mint official entity), Executive Director of Human Resources at Banco Mercantil del Norte and Director of Stock Exchange Promotion at Grupo Financiero Serfín, at that time the third largest financial corporation in Mexico.

He has been a Professor of Macroeconomics, International Trading and Finances and has participated in advisory and qualification services at the ITAM and as an advisor to the CEO at the New York Office of PEMEX.

Pierre-Olivier Pineau

Pierre-Oliver Pineau (PhD, HEC Montréal, 2000) is an associate professor at the Department of Management Sciences of HEC Montréal. He is an energy policy and management specialist, with a focus on electricity reforms. His publications cover strategic investment, pricing, privatization and energy market integration. He worked in Canada, Africa, Latin America and the Nordic countries and has published papers on all these regions. He is Associate Editor of the Energy Studies Review and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Energy Sector Management. He is also the Associate Director for HEC Montréal of the Interuniversity Research Centre for the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services (CIRAIG). He held positions in Canada at the University of Victoria (School of Public Administration, 2001-2006) and at Concordia University (Economics Department, 2000-2001). He sits on the Board of directors of the Canadian Association for Energy Economics (CAEE).

Gordon Pitts

Gordon Pitts is an author and business journalist, with a specialization in issues of management, strategy, leadership, family business, entrepreneurship and the future of Canadian business and its competitiveness in a turbulent global economy.

He is the 2009 winner of Canada’s National Business Book Award for his fifth book, Stampede: The Rise of the West and Canada’s New Power Elite. Stampede, published by Key Porter, is the fifth book he has written on Canadian business, and followed his national best-seller, “The Codfathers, Lessons from the Atlantic Business Elite,” published in fall, 2005. He has also written, ‘Kings of Convergence: The Fight for Control of Canada's Media’ (Doubleday, 2002), and ‘In the Blood: Battles to Succeed in Canada's Family Businesses’, another national bestseller published by Doubleday in 2000. His first book, ‘Storming the Fortress: How Canadian Companies Can Conquer Europe in 1992’ (HarperCollins), was published in 1990. All five books have been finalists for the National Business Book Award.

A veteran of 34 years as a business journalist, he is currently a senior writer on strategy, entrepreneurship and leadership in the Report on Business section of Canada's major national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. He provides the At the Top interview feature in the Monday Report on Business and the Exit Interview in the monthly Report on Business Magazine. He is also a former editor and writer in the Report on Business’s feature pages that have focused on marketing, strategic management and the professions.

He has helped spearhead the Globe’s recent coverage of major economic issues, such as the threats to Canadian manufacturing, the debate over the hollowing-out of Canadian head offices through foreign takeovers, and the role of a rising China in the new global power structure.

In fall, 2006, he was invited to be a distinguished writer in residence at the University of Alberta Business School and the Alberta Business Family Institute. In June 2003, he delivered the opening keynote address at the Canadian television industry's high-profile Banff conference. The speech was titled: ‘Convergence, Consolidation and Crisis’.

Paul R. Portney

Paul R. Portney became Dean of the Eller College of Management in July 2005. He also holds the College’s Halle Chair in Leadership. With 5,000 undergraduate and 700 graduate students, the Eller College of Management is the second largest college at The University of Arizona and continues to offer the most popular majors. Its program in Management Information Systems is ranked fourth nationally and its Entrepreneurship Program has been named the best in the country. During his tenure, the Eller College has created a very successful new Executive MBA program; built a new campus in Scottsdale, AZ that houses that program as well as an evening MBA cohort; seen both its undergraduate and its fulltime MBA programs ranked among the top ten and top five, respectively, in the country among public universities; and completed a strategic planning exercise that charts the future course of the College.

From 1972 through June of 2005, Portney was with Resources for the Future (RFF), an independent and non-partisan think-tank in Washington, D.C. that specializes in energy and the environment. From 1986-1989 he headed two of its research divisions, in 1989 became its Vice President, and was named President and CEO in 1995. At RFF, Portney was instrumental in expanding the research staff, reinforcing the high quality of its analyses and ensuring that its work was communicated clearly and effectively to policymakers, business leaders, journalists, environmental advocates, and academics. Portney also has a strong fundraising record, having led RFF through its successful 50th anniversary campaign that concluded in 2003.

From 1979-1980, Portney served as Chief Economist for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He has held visiting teaching positions at both the University of California at Berkeley (1977-1979) and Princeton University (1992 -1994). Since 1999, he has been a member of the board and has chaired the finance and investment committee for the Johnson Foundation, one of the charitable arms of the Johnson family of Racine, Wisconsin. In 2006 he joined the advisory board of the Harris Private Bank of Arizona and in 2009 he was elected to the board of directors of Empire District Electric (NYSE:EDE), a Missouri-based electric and gas utility.

Portney received his B.A. in economics in 1967 from Alma College in Michigan and his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including Public Policies for Environmental Protection, and was named in 2005 as one of the 100 most-cited researchers in economics and business.

Marilyn Radler

Marilyn Radler is Senior Editor, Economics with Oil & Gas Journal and is based in Houston, covering worldwide oil and gas market developments and forecasts as well as production and reserves statistics. She also serves as Conference Director of the annual Oil and Gas Maintenance Technology North America conference and exhibition in New Orleans. Marilyn joined Oil & Gas Journal in 1996 as Survey Editor. She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. A Past President of the Houston chapter of the United States Association for Energy Economics, Marilyn currently serves as a USAEE Council Member.

Mitchell P. Rothman

Mitch has been active in the North American energy industry for over 25 years. His specialties are load and price forecasting, electricity market restructuring, economic analysis of energy markets, policy analysis, and environmental economics. He has advised numerous private clients on the future of the Ontario market, including Ontario electricity market price forecasts and assessments of market price volatility, as well as analysis of market and product opportunities including the prospects for renewable generation. He helped the Ontario Power Authority with the development of its Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program and has published articles on it and the Ontario Feed in Tariff. He is the author of a World Bank monograph on sharing of rents from international hydroelectric developments, and has advised the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on the development of its large-scale hydroelectric resources. As Chief Economist of Ontario Hydro, Mitch was responsible for load forecasting and other economic forecasting. He has addressed professional associations, including EPRI and IAEE, on various issues relating to electricity. He has advised the Governments of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Western Australia, Alberta, and Ontario, the Ontario Power Authority, the Ontario system operator and the Ontario Energy Board on issues related to electricity restructuring. Mitch is a past President of the Canadian chapter of IAEE and a past Treasurer of IAEE. Mitch has a BA in Economics from Harvard University, and an MS in Industrial Administration (Economics) from Carnegie-Mellon University, where he has also completed the course work for a doctorate.

Francisco Salazar

Francisco Xavier Salazar Diez de Sollano was appointed as Chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission on December of 2005. Francisco holds a Master in Economics with an specialization in Public Finance, as well as a Diploma on Global Market Economics, both from the London School of Economics & Political Science. His major is on Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí.

Francisco has been Congressman for the district 06 of the state of San Luis Potosi twice. During this time he chaired the Energy Committee and was member of the Budget Committee and the Boards of Public Economics and Economic Development.

Francisco is a lecturer of Public Finance at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, and has taught courses on Monetary Theory and Credit for the major of International Business at the Universidad Champagnat. He has also written about the use of economic instruments and their application on environmental policy.

He is currently member of the Energy Editorial Board of the Reforma newspaper and a member of the Consulting Board of the “GLOBE International & G8+5 Legislators & Business Leaders 2012 Climate Change Dialogue”, 2006. On 2006 he received the recognition from the magazine Expansión as one of the “30 promising persons on their 30's”.

Benjamin Schlesinger

Dr. Schlesinger, founding president of BSA Inc., is one of North America’s leading independent energy consultants, specializing in gas and electricity marketing, pricing, infrastructure, trading practices, strategic planning, and power plant development worldwide. He has thirty-two years of experience in managing and carrying out engineering/economic analyses of complex energy issues, with particular focus on North American energy commodity movements and pricing, policies and programs. Dr. Schlesinger has advised over 400 clients in the U.S., Canada, and 25 other countries, including the top utility, energy trading and producing, manufacturing, regulatory, educational, private power, and financial services companies. A former vice-president of the American Gas Association, Dr. Schlesinger has testified before the U.S. Congress and in 16 states and provinces on the direction of the gas industry, gas contracting, purchase and sales prices, royalty valuations, market value, hedging and risk management, and related industry practices.

Glen C. Schmidt

Biography coming.

Christopher R. Seasons

Chris Seasons was appointed to the position of President for Devon Canada in January 2004. Chris previously held the position of Executive Vice President, Exploration and Production since 2003, with responsibility for all Canadian operating areas including exploration, exploitation, land, operations, production, acquisitions and divestitures and corporate planning.

Chris joined Northstar Energy in 1996 and served as Vice President, Exploitation since 1999. Prior to joining Northstar, he spent 12 years with Shell in Calgary and The Hague in a variety of technical and managerial positions primarily focused on the production and exploitation aspects of the business. This was followed in 1995 by a two-year tenure with Stampeder Exploration, a junior exploration and production company, where he was responsible for acquisitions.

Chris is Chair of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and is a director of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and the United Way of Calgary and Area. He was also the Co-Chair for the 2008 United Way of Calgary Campaign.

Chris is a professional engineer and a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta.

Mr. Seasons received his bachelor’s of science degree in chemical engineering from Queen’s University in 1982.

Fereidoon P. Sioshansi

Fereidoon (Perry) Sioshansi is President of Menlo Energy Economics, a consulting firm based in San Francisco, California serving the energy sector. Dr. Sioshansi’s professional experience includes working at Southern California Edison Company (SCE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), National Economic Research Associates (NERA), and most recently, Global Energy Decisions (GED), now called Ventyx. Dr Sioshansi provides consulting services to the industry, policy makers and regulators on a range of topics including: Market restructuring, privatization, liberalization & integrated resource planning (IRP); Climate change & sustainability; Energy efficiency, demand-side management & demand response; Smart grid, smart metering, smart devices & smart prices including “prices to devices” applications; Renewable energy technologies; and Regulatory policy, corporate strategy & scenario analysis. His two recent edited books, Electricity Market Reform: An International Perspective (2006) and Competitive Electricity Markets: Design, Implementation, Performance (2008) were published by Elsevier. A third book, Carbon Constrained: Future of Electricity is forthcoming in 2009. He is the editor and publisher of EEnergy Informer, a monthly newsletter with wide international circulation. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Electricity Journal where he writes the Electricity Currents section. A frequent contributor to Energy Policy, he serves on the editorial board of Utilities Policy. He has degrees in Engineering and Economics, including an MS and Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University.

James L. Smith

James L. Smith holds the Cary M. Maguire Chair in Oil and Gas Management at Southern Methodist University. Having specialized in energy studies since receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977, Dr. Smith has been a prolific researcher and author. His publications on OPEC, energy markets, real options, auction theory, and the oil and gas business have appeared in numerous academic and trade journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Mathematical Geology, the Oil and Gas Journal, and World Oil. His 1995 article on Russian oil won The Energy Journal’s Best Paper Award, and many of Dr. Smith’s publications have been reprinted in anthologies of influential research.

Dr. Smith is an active member of the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), and was elected to the USAEE Executive Council in 2005. In 2006, he became the Association’s VP for Academic Affairs, and in 2007 received the USAEE’s Senior Fellow award. Since 2006, Dr. Smith has served as Co-editor of The Energy Journal—the flagship publication of the International Association for Energy Economics.

In addition to his academic duties at Southern Methodist University, Dr. Smith is a Research Associate of the MIT Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research. He has also provided consulting services to numerous energy companies, regulatory agencies, and other organizations, in the U.S. and abroad.

James L. Sweeney

James (Jim) Sweeney, is Director of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center; Professor of Management Science and Engineering; Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; and Senior Fellow of the Stanford Institute for International Studies. His professional activities focus on economic policy and analysis, particularly in energy, natural resources, and the environment.

At Stanford he has served as chairman of the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems, chairman of the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research, Director of the Energy Modeling Forum, Chairman of the Institute for Energy Studies, and Director of the Center for Economic Policy Research (now the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research). In the early 1970's he was Director of the Office of Energy Systems Modeling and Forecasting of the U.S. Federal Energy Administration. He was a founding member of the International Association for Energy Economics, co-editor of the Journal Resource and Energy Economics, and vice-president for publications of the International Association for Energy Economics. He is a Senior Fellow of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics and a Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology. He is on the National Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and a member of Governor Schwarzenegger's Council of Economic Advisors.

He holds a B.S. degree from MIT in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Engineering-Economic Systems.

Harrie Vreedenburg

Dr. Harrie Vredenburg is Professor of Strategy at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business and is the Suncor Energy Chair in Competitive Strategy and Sustainable Development, a Haskayne research chair affiliated with the University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment & Economy (ISEEE). He also holds an appointment as an International Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Corporate Reputation (Said Business School) in the UK.

Leonard Waverman

Leonard Waverman is Dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He is also a Fellow at the Centre for Management Development at London Business School. Between 1999 and 2007, he was Professor of Economics and Chair of Economics (2003-2007) at the London Business School. Prior to moving to England, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. He has a B. Comm. and an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a PhD in economics from MIT. Professor Waverman’s current research is on the growth and productivity impacts of the rollout of telecommunications and computers. His analysis of the impacts of mobile phone rollout on economic growth in Africa was the subject of the ‘Economic Focus’ section (and Cover page) of the Economist, March 12, 2005. He is the lead author of Nokia Siemens Networks- ‘The Connectivity Index’, which ranks countries according to a new definition of how telecoms infrastructure, ‘smart’ usage and complementary skills and capital drive economic growth and productivity. His most influential publication is “Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development” joint with Lars Hendrik Roeller, American Economic Review, Sept 2001. He is currently finishing a book (joint with Melvyn Fuss), entitled The Networked Computer, to be published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press.

Bill Whitelaw

Bill Whitelaw is president and CEO of the JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group, Canada’s largest integrated energy publishing and information services company. It publishes established titles such as the Daily Oil Bulletin, Oilweek Magazine and the Oilsands Review. Whitelaw has been a journalist, editor, publisher and executive in the Canadian newspaper and B2B industries for 30 years. He launched the Oilsands Review in 2006. Published monthly, it has established a global audience for business and technical readers interested in Canada’s exploitation of its vast bitumen reserves. Whitelaw is a graduate of Loyalist College and Queen’s University and has a Master’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of Calgary.

Jay Zarnikau

As president of Frontier Associates, Jay provides consulting assistance to utilities, government agencies, and large industrial energy consumers in the design and evaluation of energy efficiency programs, retail market strategies, electricity pricing, demand forecasting, and energy policy.

Jay also teaches statistics classes as an adjunct professor at The University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and College of Natural Sciences.

Jay formerly served as a vice president at Planergy, manager at the University of Texas at Austin Center for Energy Studies, and a division director at the Public Utility Commission of Texas. His publications include over twenty articles in refereed journals.

Jay has a Ph.D. degree in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin.