Biography
Director of the Energy and Earth Sciences (EER) graduate program and Leslie Bowling Professor in Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas
Richard was born and raised in the shadow of The El Salvador porphyry copper deposit in Chile. He received his undergraduate degree in geology from Cornell and his Master’s from the University of Texas at Austin. He retired as an executive from ExxonMobil in 2015 after a 36-year career with the company. Richard has broad experience in minerals (base and precious metals), coal, oil and gas exploration, development, research and management, including a corporate assignment as upstream strategic advisor to ExxonMobil’s Corporate Management Committee and CEO. Richard has worked in basins and has participated in discoveries around the world. He was appointed as the Director of the Energy and Earth Sciences graduate program and Leslie Bowling Professor in Geological Sciences in 2016.
In 2007, Terry Jordan and I got together to talk about the value to the department of external perspective. Cornell had historically enjoyed broad connections with other academic institutions, government agencies and industry. During the days of the COCORP project, industry connections were particularly strong but had since diminished. Our thinking was that one way to improve the understanding of the relevance of the EAS degree(s) was to have an advisory team, reporting to the department chair, which would provide candid feedback regarding the strategic direction of the department. I was the inaugural chair of the AC and among my many pleasures and honors in this role was having the former President of Cornell, Frank H.T. Rhodes, as a committee member.