WASHINGTON, DC – Over the past several months, the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center has been expanding its network of nonresident fellows, adding thirteen new thought leaders who bring to the Council wide-ranging expertise on today’s most pressing global energy challenges and opportunities.  

This network of nonresident fellows enables the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center to advance its mission to promote global access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy. Through their research, writing, and outreach, our nonresident staff will build upon the formidable work that the Global Energy Center has done since its inception in January 2015. By tapping into this network, the Center will amplify new voices with diverse areas of expertise and drive the discourse on critical energy issues in Washington and beyond.

Under the leadership of Ambassador Richard L. Morningstar, the Founding Director of the Global Energy Center, the nonresident fellows will support the Center’s ambitious agenda for the future. Among the projects that these fellows will work on are initiatives on the changing role of Iran’s hydrocarbon production and exports, Asian energy issues, the US energy boom and national security, Kurdish politics and energy, climate change, global energy governance architecture, and European energy and geopolitics.

For more information or to request an interview with one of the Global Energy Center nonresident fellows, please email press@AtlanticCouncil.org.

Coit “Chip” Blacker served in the first Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the NSC, he oversaw the implementation of US policy toward Russia and the New Independent States, while also serving as Principal Staff Assistant to the President and the National Security Advisor on matters relating to the former Soviet Union.

Ross Chanin is a repeat entrepreneur and speaks and publishes on energy policy and market orientations. Previously, he was the CEO and Founder of American Efficient, a venture-backed software platform for US regulated utilities and the deregulated power sector. He cofounded Reputation.com, a world leader in online privacy and reputation management solutions, and a 2012 World Economic Forum (Davos) Global Growth Company.

Bud Coote recently retired from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as the agency’s leading international energy analyst and a key adviser to senior US officials on a wide array of global energy issues. He helped to establish and build the CIA’s energy program dating back to the early 1970s, producing actionable intelligence that directly supported and shaped decisions made by US policy officials, foreign officials, and private companies.

Peter Dean is on the faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he has taught for eighteen years. He is the Founder of the Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies Concentration at RISD. He is also the Cofounder of The Biennial Design Science Symposium at RISD and a Cofounder of the Global Sustainability Fellows Program, an initiative of the Sustainability Laboratory in New York. This program is a partnership between thirteen graduate schools from around the world to teach sustainability internationally and in an interdisciplinary manner.

David Milner founded NuGen Capital Management in 2009, and he serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Over the past twenty years, he has founded and operated several successful investment companies and businesses. Previously, he held positions as Director of Climate and Alternate Energy at Hastings Funds Management and as Partner in the Climate Leaders Fund, a private equity fund that focused on landfill methane gas collection.

Joseph C. Perkowski most recently managed energy initiatives at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Prior to INL, he served on assignment from Nexant/Bechtel R&D to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as Market Sector Manager, responsible for the integration of selected technical activity with the commercial marketplace. He was also a Senior Research Officer with the Corporate Environmental and Social Affairs Department of Petro‐Canada.

Alan Riley is a professor at City Law School. City University advises governments, EU institutions, NGOs, and corporations on major strategic problems in relation to abuse of dominance, price-fixing, and merger cases concerning strategic problems in the global and European energy markets. He is also a regular guest columnist on competition and energy law issues with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Financial Times.

Jean-François Seznec teaches classes on finance, energy, and politics in the Persian Gulf. He has published and lectured extensively on chemical and energy-based industries in the Gulf and their importance in world trade. His research centers on the influence of the Arab-Persian Gulf, as well as political and social variables on the financial and oil markets in the region.

Brenda Shafferfocuses on the Eastern Mediterranean and global energy market developments. She is currently a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies (CERES). She is on sabbatical from the University of Haifa, where she is a professor in the School of Political Science, and she previously served as the Research Director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University.

Micha’el Tanchumholds a PhD from Harvard University and was a Fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and its Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. His area of research is the geopolitics of energy, with a special focus on the strategic implications of newly emerging patterns of energy connectivity in Eurasia and the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean region. He also conducts extensive research on the energy politics of the Eastern Mediterranean and Caspian Basin regions.

Branko Terzic is Managing Director at Berkeley Research Group (BRG) LLC in Washington, DC. His national and international career in energy and the regulated public utility industries has included service as Commissioner on the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Commissioner on the State of Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and as a management consulting engineer and energy company CEO.

Harry Tzimitras is the Director of Peace Research Institute Olso (PRIO) Cyprus Centre. Before joining PRIO, he held a post at Istanbul Bilgi University, where he was the Director of the International Relations Master’s Program and the Director of the Turkish-Greek Studies Division. His areas of expertise include public international law, the law of the sea, foreign policy, energy geopolitics, the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey.

Sara Vakhshouri is the Founder and President of SVB Energy International, a strategic energy consulting firm. She is an internationally recognized expert on global energy market studies, energy security, and geopolitical risk with a special focus on the Middle East, Iran, and Mexico. She has advised numerous energy and policy leaders, international corporations, think tanks, investment banks, and law firms on the global energy market, the geopolitics of energy, and investment patterns.