About the speakers

Michael Cohen
Chief U.S. Economist and Head of Oil and Refining
bp

Michael Cohen is chief U.S. economist and head of oil and refining in bp’s Strategy, Sustainability and Ventures group. In this role, he is responsible for short-, medium- and long-term oil market and industry analysis that informs bp’s leadership team and the bp Energy Outlook. Prior to joining bp in May 2019, Cohen was Barclays’ global head of commodities research. He also worked for a decade in the public sector as an economist with the U.S. Department of Energy and as a senior member of the Oil Markets Division at the International Energy Agency.

Cohen is a council member of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics, a nonresident fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines and a board member of Our Energy Policy. He frequently lectures on energy, oil markets and geopolitics at several universities.

Cohen graduated Phi Beta Kappa with dual undergraduate degrees in business and political science from the Ohio State University and a masters in international economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is fluent in Russian and French.

 

Geoffrey Hebertson
Lead Renewables Analyst
Rystad Energy

Geoffrey Hebertson is lead renewables analyst in Rystad Energy’s new energies team. In this role, he is responsible for providing research and expertise on the renewable energy and power industries in the U.S. as well as overseeing Rystad Energy’s U.S. renewables and power solution. Prior to joining Rystad Energy in 2020, Hebertson held management consulting roles across the energy spectrum with a special focus on the renewable energy sector. He has also held research roles at Gartner and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hebertson holds a master’s degree in professional studies in applied economics from the University of Maryland–College Park and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Texas Tech University.

 

Chris Birdsall
Director, Economics and Energy
Exxon Mobil

Chris Birdsall is the director of Exxon Mobil’s Economics and Energy Division. In this role, he leads a team of economists, modelers and researchers that explore economic and energy topics. The work underpins Exxon Mobil’s Global Outlook, which forms the basis for the corporation’s strategy, business plans and research programs.

He joined ExxonMobil as an engineer in 1996, and has progressed through a number of manufacturing, technology and commercial roles over the last 25+ years. He has held management positions in ExxonMobil’s Polymers, Basic Chemicals, Lubricant Basestocks, and Technology Licensing businesses.

Birdsall serves on the industry advisory board for the International Energy Agency and the advisory board for the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Florida.

Birdsall has a degree in chemical engineering with highest honors from the University of Florida.

 

Erik Haug
Vice President, Energy Marketing
Apex Clean Energy

Erik Haug leads Apex’s Energy Marketing team focused on utility-scale renewable energy offtake with corporate, utility, municipal and government customers.

Since joining Apex in 2015, Haug has successfully built relationships with dozens of leading corporations, universities and cities, resulting in the execution of more than four gigawatts of power purchase agreements to support utility scale wind and solar projects in the United States. 

Previously, Haug held positions as an exploration and development geologist and a commercial advisor for ExxonMobil, with responsibilities for market analysis, negotiations and transactions, and commercial business intelligence. 

His research on landscape evolution driven by hyper-arid climate is published in the journal Geomorphology.

Haug holds a BS in geology with environmental concentration from the College of William and Mary and an MS in geosciences from Virginia Tech.

 

Michael LaMotte
Senior Managing Director
Guggenheim Securities

Michael LaMotte is a senior managing director in the Energy and Power Group of Guggenheim Securities. He joined the firm in 2010 as a founding partner of the equities business, where he served as head of energy and environment research and as a member of the Research Oversight Committee. Prior to joining Guggenheim, LaMotte was the head of Americas Energy Research at JPMorgan Securities, Inc., where he was recognized repeatedly as a top analyst by Institutional Investor magazine and the Greenwich Survey. He has over 30 years of energy finance experience.

LaMotte serves on the advisory boards of the Maguire Energy Institute and the Spindletop Fund at Southern Methodist University.

He received his BA in economics from Vanderbilt University.