David J. Lesar: Halliburton Chairman & CEO

David J. Lesar was born on May 30, 1953, in Madison, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor of science and an MBA degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. A Certified Public Accountant Dave spend 16 years working with Arthur Andersen. He was a Partner at Arthur Andersen and served as Commercial Group Director of Arthur Andersen. Among the accounts he worked on was Halliburton, the energy giant. He would eventually join Halliburton.

He was an Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration for Halliburton Energy Services from December 1993 to June 1995. Dave was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Halliburton Company from June 1995 to June 1996. He was President in May 1997 and Chief Operating Officer from June 1997 to August 2000. 

Dave became the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton Company in August 2000. 

He serves as a Director of the America Petroleum Institute. Dave serves as a Member of the Advisory Board of The British-American Business Council. He also served as a Director of Lyondell Chemical Company since July 28, 2000, and served as an Independent Director of Agrium Inc. from May 12, 2010, to May 6, 2015. 

Publicly listed Halliburton was founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton and is based in Houston, Texas. The firm offers services and products to the energy industry related to the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas. It operates through two segments: Completion & Production and Drilling & Evaluation. 

The Completion & Production segment delivers  cementing, stimulation, intervention, pressure control, speciality chemicals, artificial lift, and completion services. This segment consists of Halliburton production enhancement, cementing, completion tools, boots & coots, multi-chem and artificial lift. 

The Drilling & Evaluation segment provides field and reservoir modeling, drilling, evaluation, and wellbore placement solutions that enable customers to model, measure, and optimize their well construction activities. This segment consists of Halliburton drill bits and services, wireline and perforating, as well as Halliburton consulting and project management. 

A company will sales in excess of $32 billion Dave leads a huge organization whose performance affect the lives and businesses of so many people. 

Robert Dudley: BP CEO

Robert “Bob” Dudley was born on September 14, 1955 in Queens, New York City. Bob grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1973 he graduated from Hinsdale Central High School in suburban Chicago. Bob earned a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois. He proceeded to earn a Master of International Management degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

In 1979 Bob joined Amoco. He worked in a number of positions including negotiating deals in the South China Sea. In what would be a defining development in his career Amoco had him work in Moscow from 1994 to 1997. Bob became a general manager for strategy for Amoco in 1997. In 1999 after the merger between BP and Amoco he was appointed to a similar role in BP.

Bob was executive assistant to the group chief executive between 1999 and 2000 after which he became group vice president for BP’s renewable and alternative energy activities. Bob became group vice president in 2002 responsible for BP’s upstream business in Russia, the Caspian region, Angola, Algeria and Egypt.

His exposure to Russia certainly played a big role in his becoming the president and chief executive of TNK-BP from 2003 to 2008. This was a joint venture between BP and a group of Russian billionaires known as AAR. Bob later had a falling out with AAR who accused him of favoring BP.  It reached a point where he had to leave Russia in haste because his visa was not renewed. After much difficulty in trying to run the business from outside Russia he resigned in December 2008.

Bob returned to BP in 2009 and was appointed to the BP board and responsible for the group’s activities in the Americas and Asia. He took on a crucial and sensitive job serving as president and executive officer between June 23 and September 2010 of BP’s Gulf Restoration Organization in the US after the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

This stint was short-lived as Bob took on a bigger role of becoming BP’s Group Chief Executive on October 10, 2010.

Zhou Jiping: PetroChina Company Chairman

Zhou Jiping was born in 1952 and of Han nationality. He earned a degree in Geology from the China University of Petroleum and holds a master’s degree in Marine Geologic Structure from the Nanhai Marine Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  Zhou is a professor-level senior engineer with almost 40 years of working experience in China’s petrochemical industry.  

He was the Manager of the development department of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Manager of the overseas department of the International Cooperation Bureau of the China National Petroleum Company, President of the China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation in Vanuatu, and President of the China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation in Papua New Guinea.

Zhou was appointed a Director of PetroChina in May 2004 and the Vice Chairman and President of the Company in May 2008. He was appointed President of CNPC in November 2011. Zhou was formally appointed as the Chairman and President of PetroChina and Chairman of CNPC in April 2013.

PetroChina is the largest oil and gas producer and distributor in China as well as one of the largest companies in the world in terms of revenue. CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) is the sole sponsor and controlling shareholder of PetroChina.