Energy 2050: The Future of Petroleum

Steven W. Percy - Introduction
Former Chairman and CEO, BP America, Inc. Director, Resources for the Future

Steve Percy was Chairman and CEO of BP America, Inc., from 1996 to 1999. Prior to assuming those duties, he was President of BP Oil in the U.S. from 1992 to 1996. Mr. Percy returned to BP America in 1992 from London, England, where he served as Group Treasurer of The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. and Chief Executive of BP Finance International.

Since retiring from BP, he has served as the head of Phillips Petroleum’s Refining, Marketing and Transportation Company, visited as a Professor of Corporate Strategy and International Business at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business, and conducted workshops on corporate governance for the AHC Group, a strategic consultant in the areas of environment, energy, and materials. He contributes to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as Coordinating Lead Author with respect to its Conceptual Framework and its Responses working group and leads the writing of its synthesis report for business and industry. Previously, he served as a member of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development as Co-Chair of its Climate Change Task Force.

Born in 1946, Mr. Percy is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Master’s in business administration from The University of Michigan, and a Juris Doctorate from Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar.

Matthew R. Simmons
Chairman, Simmons & Company, International Director, Resources for the Future

Matthew Simmons is Chairman and former CEO of Simmons & Company International, a specialized energy investment banking firm. The firm has completed over 500 investment-banking projects for its worldwide energy clients at a combined dollar value of approximately $60 billion. 

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Simmons began a small venture capital, private debt placement, merger, and acquisition firm in Boston. Among his early clients was a rapidly growing subsea service company. By 1973, most of his clients were oil service companies. Following the 1973 Oil Shock, Simmons created a Houston-based firm to concentrate on providing highest quality investment banking advice to the worldwide oil service industry. Over time, the specialization expanded into investment banking covering all aspects of the global energy industry.

Today the firm has approximately 150 employees and is one of the largest energy investment banking groups in the world, with offices in Houston, Texas; London, England; Boston, Massachusetts; and Aberdeen, Scotland. Simmons publishes numerous energy papers for industry journals and is a frequent speaker at government forums, energy symposiums, and in boardrooms of many leading energy companies around the world.

Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Congressional Host

Now serving his seventh term in the House of Representatives, Roscoe G. Bartlett has also had successful careers as a professor, research scientist and inventor, small business owner, and farmer. One of three scientists in Congress, Bartlett serves a senior member of the Science Committee, among others.

Bartlett’s long professional career includes inventing a series of breakthrough respiratory support equipment while working at the U.S. Navy's School of Aviation Medicine. He holds the basic patents for rebreathing equipment that recycles the oxygen from exhaled air in closed systems, extending oxygen supplies and making them portable – two critical components of the equipment that supplies oxygen to astronauts, pilots, and fire/rescue personnel. He worked at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, directing a research group in Space Life Sciences to design research experiments that contributed to the Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo missions. He has also worked at IBM on biomedical engineering and defense-related projects.

Bartlett attended Columbia Union College where he majored in theology and biology, and he earned his Master’s degree in physiology from the University of Maryland. He was then hired as a U-MD faculty member and taught anatomy, physiology and zoology while simultaneously earning a Ph.D. in physiology.

Representative Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
Congressional Host

U.S. Representative Vernon J. Ehlers of Grand Rapids was sworn in on January 4, 2005, to serve his sixth full term in the House of Representatives. Ehlers joined Congress following a distinguished tenure of service in teaching, scientific research, and public service, and is the first research physicist to serve in Congress.

Representative Ehlers serves on four committees, including the Science Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards. During his tenure on the Science Committee, he has rewritten the nation's science policy and introduced the National Science Education Acts aimed at reforming K-12 science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education. He also serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where, in the 107th Congress, he led the development of the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which authorizes spending $270 million over the next five years to clean up sediments in the Great Lakes.

Ehlers holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Calvin College and received his Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1966, after six years of teaching and research at Berkeley, he moved to Calvin College, where he taught physics for 16 years and later served as chairman of the Physics Department.