Robert Lesnick

Robert M. Lesnick is an Executive Advisor to the highest levels of governments and businesses seeking to develop policy and projects in the energy sector. Mr. Lesnick fashioned a successful 30-year career in the private sector before leading the World Bank’s Petroleum Advisory Services Practice until 2013. He has extensive experience in energyrelated businesses, including petroleum commodity trading, natural gas pipeline and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) project development, and gas processing operations management. Robert has over 30 years of international experience as an advisor, country manager and lead negotiator for the development of energy infrastructure projects and has conducted business in more than 100 international locations in 87 countries on 6 continents.

In his assignment at the World Bank, Robert managed the development of the business strategy and allocation of resources of the institution’s Petroleum Policy Advisory Services Unit and provided advice on a variety of energy policy topics to strategic government clients. In this role he was a member of the Bank’s supervisory team to the Iraq Integrated National Energy Strategy (INES), and lead technical advisor of the project assessment team to the West African Gas Pipeline.

Mr. Lesnick is recognized as one of the premier international petroleum business negotiators. He was elected as Vice President and Executive Committee member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) in 2009 and was its President’s Award winner in 2010. He has served on the Management Committee for the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas (CLNG) in Washington, DC and was the Chairman of the Forum on Natural Gas Flare Reduction in Amsterdam in 2008 and a co-chair at the 2015 forum in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. He was the moderator of the Spotlight Session, The Role of Natural Gas in the Developing World, at LNG17 in Houston, Texas in April 2013.

Robert has been a guest lecturer at Rice University (Houston, TX), the University of Oklahoma and the International Law Institute in Washington DC. He is a frequent conference speaker on a variety of global energy related topics. He has published several papers on international natural gas development including: Master the Milieu: A Broader Approach to Foreign Business Development (March, 2000); Natural Gas in Developing Countries: Recent Trends and Issues for Increased Development and Use in Lower-Carbon Economies (February, 2011); The Role of Indigenous Natural Gas in Meeting Pakistan’s Primary Energy Needs (July, 2014); and is currently working on a paper on Principle-Based Natural Gas Policy Formulation.

Mr. Lesnick earned a BS degree from Northern Arizona University, and received an MBA at the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University where he was honored as a Jones Scholar. He has held appointments as an adjunct professor from Rice University and the Georgetown Law School, and as a Foundational Lecturer at the International Law Institute.