Frank A. Verrastro

Frank Verrastro is senior vice president and holds the James R. Schlesinger Chair for Energy and Geopolitics at CSIS. From 2003 to 2012, he served as director of the CSIS Energy and National Security Program. He has extensive energy experience, having spent over 30 years in energy policy and project management positions in the U.S. government and the private sector. His government service has included staff positions in the White House and the Departments of Interior and Energy, including serving as deputy assistant secretary for international energy resources. In the private sector, he served as director of refinery policy and crude oil planning for TOSCO (formerly the nation's largest independent refiner) and more recently as senior vice president at Pennzoil. Responsibilities at Pennzoil included government affairs activity, both domestic and international, corporate planning, risk assessment, and international negotiations. In addition, he served on the company’s Executive Management and Operating Committees, as well as the Environmental, Safety, and Health Leadership Council. Verrastro holds a B.S. in biology/chemistry from Fairfield University, a master's degree from Harvard University, and he completed the executive management program at the Yale University Graduate School of Business and Management. He has been an adjunct professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and has lectured at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He served as a member of the Coordinating Committee for the 2012 National Petroleum Council (NPC) study, Prudent Development of North American Energy Resources, as chair for the Geopolitics and Policy Task Groups for the 2007 NPC report, Hard Truths: Facing the Hard Truths about Energy, and as a Task Force member for the Council on Foreign Relations report, National Security Consequences of U.S. Oil Dependency and on the 2011 NPC report, Prudent Development—Realizing the Potential of North America's Abundant Natural Gas and Oil Resources. He has authored a variety of papers on energy and security topics and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the National Renewable Fuels Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.