Francis R. Fannon is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. He has led organizations and created business opportunities at senior levels of government and as a corporate executive for more than two decades.

Fannon is currently the managing director of Fannon Global Advisors, a strategic advisory focused on geopolitics, the energy transition, and market transformation. He is also a nonresident senior advisor at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Fannon was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate to serve as the inaugural assistant secretary of state for energy resources. As “America’s energy diplomat,” he led whole-of-government initiatives in the Indo-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa region to advance free, open markets and resilient supply chains. Fannon and his team advanced major energy and infrastructure deals worth tens of billions of dollars.

Fannon elevated global awareness of the critical role that minerals play in the energy transition. He led bilateral and multinational coalitions to help countries responsibly develop clean energy minerals and fostered more transparent markets.

Fannon was also previously a senior executive for global energy and resource companies. As managing director of BHP, Fannon established the company’s US corporate affairs function. He created and led a comprehensive strategy to support the company’s growing footprint, expand its US shareholder base, and shape climate change stakeholder messaging campaigns. Fannon served as chief US advisor to the BHP Foundation, focused on transparency and governance, environmental resilience, and education equity.

Before BHP, Fannon led government affairs for Murphy Oil Corporation. He facilitated new country entry in multiple regions, co-negotiated production sharing contracts, and managed crisis communications and stakeholder engagements.

Fannon also helped to shape US energy policy while serving in senior positions on Capitol Hill. As counsel to the US Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, Fannon drafted, negotiated, and helped pass into law the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included the hydraulic fracturing provisions that unleashed the shale revolution. Fannon also served as counsel to senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) and Pete V. Domenici (R-NM).

Fannon holds a JD from the University of Denver College of Law, an MA in international affairs, economics, and trade from the University of Denver Korbel School of International Studies, and a BA from Radford University.