Interim Executive Director
Biography
Dr Robert G. Skinner
Dr Robert Skinner is an independent strategy advisor and consultant in Calgary. His career in Energy spans four decades in government, industry and academia. He is currently advising the Canada School of Energy and Environment on its strategy and research programs.
He is formerly Senior Vice President Statoil Canada Ltd, former Director of the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies in Oxford, England, Administrator, Northern Pipeline Agency, Vice President, Total E&P Canada and Senior Advisor, gas and power, Total, Paris, Director of the Long Term Office of the International Energy Agency, Paris (where he led the agency’s work on Climate Change and the drafting and negotiation of its Shared Goals), Assistant Deputy Minister, Energy Commodities, Energy, Mines & Resources (now Natural Resources Canada), and before that, Director General of EMR’s Natural Gas Branch, Director General of Oil Prices and Compensation Branch, Senior Advisor Oil Import Strategy, the first Director of EMR’s Office of Environmental Affairs, Science Policy Advisor, Department of External Affairs and Research Scientist, Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) where he developed techniques for the exploration of base metals and diamonds. He did his doctoral research in the late sixties for the GSC on ancient climate change in the James Bay Lowlands.
Bob is the author of numerous papers, articles and lectures, contributor to books and studies on energy, geopolitics and policy. He is a Senior Research Advisor to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Associate Fellow of Chatham House, past Academic Advisor on Energy and Sustainable Development to the Club of Madrid, former external faculty of Vienna University’s Executive Academy Exec MBA in Energy Management, member of the Bertelsmann Foundation’s Global Policy Council, occasional external editor for Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies & Research, member of Editorial Board of Geopolitics of Energy, and has been a consultant and advisor to industry and governments in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Dr Skinner has advanced degrees in geology from Queen’s University (BSc, 1968) and the University of Washington, Seattle (PhD, 1971).
