New professorship addresses energy

A new professorship devoted to global energy policy has been created at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG) to help address the enormous challenges of meeting worldwide energy needs in a timely, secure, environmentally responsible, and economic manner.

The Raymond Plank Professorship of Global Energy Policy, designed to advance teaching and research in the field of global energy policy, was endowed by Raymond Plank, a pioneer in the energy industry, and Apache Corp., the energy company Plank founded and led for more than 50 years.

“Developing effective energy policy in the United States and throughout the world will be one of the great global challenges of our time,” said David T. Ellwood, dean of KSG. “I am confident that the Plank Chair of Global Energy Policy will lead to a better understanding of the complex environmental, economic, and political issues related to energy policy.”

“Apache has long been committed to corporate social responsibility and how businesses and other entities can collaborate to advance the public interest in the area of global energy exploration, extraction, and consumption,” said Plank. “I am pleased to support advancements in these critically important areas by establishing this chair at Harvard.”

Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Public Policy and Administration William W. Hogan, an expert in energy economics and public policy, will be the inaugural incumbent of the Plank Chair. Hogan, who has taught at KSG for 27 years, serves as director of Graduate Studies for the Ph.D. programs in public policy and in political economy and government. He is also research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group and director of the Repsol YPF – Harvard University Kennedy School Fellows Program. His current research focuses on major energy industry restructuring, network pricing and access issues, market design, and privatization in nations worldwide.

“Mr. Plank’s generosity and leadership in establishing this chair will provide support for generations of scholarship in all areas of energy policy,” said Hogan.

“I am pleased that Professor Hogan, an internationally respected scholar on energy policy, has been named to fill this chair,” said Plank. “Harvard and the Kennedy School are fortunate to have a scholar with such in-depth experience and expertise in the real-world application of energy policy working on such an important issue.”

The Plank Chair of Global Energy Policy will be affiliated with KSG’s Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. The center helps to develop solutions to some of society’s most challenging problems at the interface of business and government.

Plank has been an active and generous philanthropist, with a longstanding interest in advancing education at all levels, promoting the arts, improving race relations, and enhancing land management in the western United States. As founder and chairman of Apache Corp., he has helped lead the company to its present position as one of America’s largest global oil and gas independents.

Apache Corp. is a $24 billion company with operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Egypt, the United Kingdom North Sea, China, and Argentina.