Darius W. Gaskins Jr.
Chairman

Darius W. Gaskins, Jr. is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRINC).  Dr. Gaskins has had a distinguished career in industry, government, and academia and is a founding partner of Norbridge, Inc. He is a former Chairman of Resources for the Future, served as President and Chief Executive Officer, Burlington Northern Railroad, Senior Vice President, Natomas North America, Chairman, Interstate Commerce Commission, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Analysis at the Department of Energy, and directed the economic analysis efforts the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Federal Trade Commission.

Lucian Pugliaresi
President

Lucian (Lou) Pugliaresi has been President of  Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRINC) since February 2007 and managed the transfer of PIRINC from New York to Washington, DC. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of PIRINC before taking over the presidency. Since leaving government service in 1989, Mr. Pugliaresi worked as a consultant on a wide range of domestic and international petroleum issues. Mr.Pugliaresi has served in a wide range of government posts, including the National Security Council at the White House, Departments of State, Energy, and Interior, as well as the EPA. He has written various articles on energy issues published in the Oil and Gas Journal and other journals on Russian Petroleum, Energy Security and Energy Policy.

Larry Goldstein

Member of the Board
Director, Special Projects

Lawrence J. Goldstein, previous President of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation (PIRINC), is now a trustee with the Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRINC). He also serves as Director of Special Projects for EPRINC. He has extensive advisory relationships with energy companies, research institutes and government agencies. He has testified before numerous congressional committees and regulatory bodies and has been been appointed to the National Petroleum Council (NPC) by every Secretary of Energy. He has briefed the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, senior officials at the General Accounting Office, Congressional Committees, and a wide range of government agencies on developments in domestic and world petroleum markets. He has also served as consultant to the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority. He was a founder and President of the PIRA Energy Group, an energy consulting firm that is currently retained by nearly 400 companies. Mr. Goldstein is an internationally recognized authority on petroleum markets.

Ben Montalbano
Senior Research Analyst

Ben Montalbano is a senior research analyst at EPRINC. He is a recent graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied Economics. Mr. Montalbano joined EPRINC in January 2008 and earlier provided research support to the foundation during his college years covering both world energy markets and oil and gas production developments. His work has been published in several industry publications, including the Oil and Gas Journal and World Oil. In addition to his research efforts in the oil and gas market, he has worked in the IT industry. He is a Russian speaker.

Pravin S. Sheth is engineering consultant to EPRINC. He has over 28 years of experience in U.S. refining industry in the areas of refinery operations, technology development, asset support, technical training and technical service. He worked for Chevron and ExxonMobil from 1980 through 2007. During those years, he was responsible for developing and supporting company’s technology development, providing technical service, troubleshooting and design support to worldwide ExxonMobil affiliates and Technology Licensors. He was lead asset support engineer responsible for providing technical support to company’s worldwide FCC units. Prior to joining ExxonMobil, he was complex operation supervisor with Gulf-Chevron at the Philadelphia refinery. Pravin has a Master’s in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Missouri at Rolla, Missouri.

Andrew Kukushkin is an oil and gas consultant to EPRINC on Russia and Central Asia and resides in Moscow. Mr. Kukushkin has over 19 years of high level advisory services for energy, technology and telecommunication companies. He brings extensive experience on the structure of the Russian petroleum industry including pricing, taxes, and trading. He has provided advisory services to ARCO, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corporation, Lukoil, and Gazprom and continues to work with the Presidential Administration, and Ministries of Economy, Natural Resources, and Energy on oil and gas issues. Mr. Kukushkin is a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1978-1991.

John Lichtblau
Honorary Chairman

John Lichtblau, former Chairman of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation (PIRINC), has retired and has now been appointed to the position of Honorary Chairman of the Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRINC).  He is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.  He is also a recipient of the International Association for Energy Economics award for Outstanding Contributions to the Profession. Mr. Lichtblau is recognized worldwide for his decades of objective analysis of the oil industry and its policy issues.