Speakers
Eric N. Smith
Eric Smith currently is a clinical professor of Finance at the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. He also serves as the Associate Director of the Tulane Energy Institute. He joined Tulane's Energy Institute in 2003. He is a 1965 Chemical Engineering graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and earned an MBA, in 1967, from the A. B. Freeman School at Tulane University. He has 43 years of experience, first, in the petrochemical industry, and since 1984, in the international offshore drilling and construction sectors.
Eric has worked with Global Industries, The CRP Group, and Torch Inc. where, as EVP he was instrumental in arranging an $80 million. Initial Public Offering. Prior to joining Torch, he assisted Italian E&C contractor Saipem in a major public offering that financed their deep water initiative. He also served as President and Chairman of Saipem, Inc., their U.S. subsidiary. Prior to that effort, Eric worked for J. Ray McDermott. His petrochemical experience was with Allied Chemical, now a unit of Honeywell, and with the Ethyl Corporation, in Baton Rouge. He has also served as a consultant to Louisiana's Department of Economic Development and served on the New Orleans City council's task force on Energy Efficiency.
He is author or co-author of several reports dealing with the LNG market, long term changes in the offshore construction market and, a report on the prospects for growth in the use of petroleum coke in the Gulf Coast power generation market. He has numerous trade journal articles to his credit and has appeared as a speaker and presenter at multiple conferences dealing with both U.S. and International energy matters. He has also been a key respondent for the university to media and government requests for information about the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
His research interest focuses on the use of Butanol as a substitute for Ethanol in the production of renewable transportation fuels. He participates in a joint program, focused on Butanol, that is led by Tulane's school of science and engineering and is funded by a multi-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
He is also currently participating in a state sponsored, multi university, research project focused on estimating the economic impact of the BP oil spill and the even greater impact resulting from moratoria on deep water drilling.
