Executive Education Faculty

In July 2010, Richard Sears was appointed Senior Science and Engineering Advisor, and Chief Scientist, to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling where he provided technical expertise on all aspects of oil and gas exploration, development and production, and served as a liaison between Commission staff and industry experts. He assisted with the Commission’s investigation of the root causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill as well as the formulation of recommendations for the Commission. He is a co-author of the Commission Chief Counsel’s Report which details the root causes of the accident. In March 2011, the Commission’s work ended and he was appointed by the United States Secretary of the Interior to the Offshore Energy Safety Advisory Committee to provide recommendations to the Secretary on matters relating to offshore energy safety and technology.

In September 2011, he was in Havana, Cuba for consultative meetings with senior officials of the Cuban Ministry of Basic Industries, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and CUPET, the Cuban National Oil Company. Led by the Environmental Defense Fund, the purpose of the meetings was to engage with the Cuban government on issues of technology and risk as they begin a program of exploration drilling in the deep offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, northwest of Havana.

He has recently been appointed Consulting Professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University where he will develop and teach courses in energy systems, technology, and economics.

He retired from Royal Dutch Shell in 2009, where for more than 32 years he contributed to and led exploration and development projects on six continents. Over his career, his responsibilities included strategy development, business planning and forecasting, and technology development. Since 2006, he has held an appointment as Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his research interests are in energy systems, the development of hydrocarbon resources, and the future transition to renewable energy.

As an external spokesman for Shell on energy and technology issues, Sears represented the company at industry meetings as well as venues such as TED, the National Geographic Society, and in online interactive sessions. Sears also frequently represented Shell to partners, government ministers and national oil companies. He has given invited and keynote talks at conferences in the US, UK, Africa and Asia, and has given presentations and seminars at a number of major U.S. research universities. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Dean of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, is a member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and is a Registered Professional Geoscientist in the State of Texas.

Sears has authored numerous internal publications for Shell and has prepared and presented courses and seminars within Shell and to external audiences. He holds a B.S. in physics and a M.S. in geophysics, both from Stanford University. Close«