EXECUTIVE PROGRAM FOR ENERGY LEADERS

R. Britt Freund

Faculty Director; Professor of Information, Risk, and Operations Management

R. Britt Freund has spent the bulk of his almost 30-year academic career focused on the energy industry. In addition to delivering graduate courses on project management, operations strategy, supply chain, and decision analysis around the world, Freund works extensively with firms such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Petrobras, Sinopec, CNPC, and Black & Veatch. His primary research, teaching, and consulting interests have been in the realm of project management, particularly the management of risk in large capital projects. His most recent work has focused on business risks living in the interface between commercial agreements and complex capital projects.

Anitesh Barua

David Bruton Jr. Centennial Chair Professor, Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management

Anitesh Barua received his bachelor’s in engineering from Jadavpur University in India and his M.S. and Ph.D. in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University. His research and teaching interests include unstructured data analytics, mobile apps, cryptocurrency and blockchain, open source innovation, measuring business value of information technology, analyzing strategic information technology investments, and economics of information systems.

Fred Beach

Assistant Director, Energy and Technology Policy, UT Energy Institute

Fred Beach is responsible for conducting research and supervising studies related to the development of energy, environmental, and technology policies. Beach also teaches energy technology policy and international energy policy in the Cockrell School of Engineering, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and The McCombs School of Business.

J. Eric Bickel

Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering (Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering)

Eric Bickel’s research interests include the theory and practice of decision analysis. His work has addressed the modeling of probabilistic dependence, value of information, scoring rules, calibration, risk preference, decision education, decision making in sports, and climate engineering as a response to climate change. He has consulted around the world in a range of industries, including oil and gas, electricity generation/transmission/delivery, energy trading and marketing, commodity and specialty chemicals, life sciences, financial services, and metals and mining.

Tim Curren

Principal, Blue Strata Solutions

Tim Curren has over 30 years of diverse business, legal, and operational experience. He spent the first fifteen years of his career as a US Air Force pilot and corporate financial analyst for American Airlines. Subsequent to his aviation career, Curren attended law school and practiced law focusing on the formation and operation of U.S. domestic and offshore private investment funds. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and has developed and delivered corporate training programs in connection with the Project Management Consortium at the University of Texas at Austin.

Gürcan Gülen

Independent Consultant and Senior Researcher, UT Austin

Gürcan Gülen is an energy economist with 25 years of international experience in policy and market research on oil, natural gas, and electric power value chains. His work also focuses on associated strategic technical assistance and customized capacity building in numerous countries. He participated in research at the Bureau of Economic Geology of the University of Texas since and is a key contributor to the Texas Executive Education programs at The McCombs School of Business.
He has been involved in developing and instructing in professional and university courses on energy value chain economics since the early 2000s, including Executive MBA courses and Executive Programs for Sinopec, CNOOC, and ExxonMobil.

Gaylen Paulson

Associate Dean, Director of Texas Executive Education

Gaylen Paulson’s research and teaching focus on how we interact strategically with people, including in negotiations, conflict management, persuasion, change, and interpersonal communication. His consulting and executive training programs have been sponsored by a wide variety of organizations, including Bayer, British Petroleum, China National Offshore Oil Corp., Petrobras, Shell, the US Air Force, US Army, the US General Services Administration, and the US Navy.

Michael Peterson

Assistant Professor of Instruction, Department of Management

Michael Peterson develops and teaches core/elective entrepreneurship curriculum in MBA, MSTC (flagship graduate entrepreneurship degree), and BBA degree programs. He is also the managing director of Pemberton Economic Group where he was involved in several technology and innovation assessments.

David Spence

Professor in the Business, Government & Society Department

David Spence focuses his research and teaching on business–government relations and the regulation of business, particularly energy and environmental regulation. Spence has taught as a visitor at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment; Vanderbilt Law School; Cornell Law School; Harvard Law School; IMADEC University in Vienna, Austria; and the Bren School of the Environment at the University of California, Santa Barbara.