Stephen R. Brand

"The camaraderie of the graduate students and cohesiveness that developed between us has remained in place to this day.What also remains unchanged is that I am still extremelyproud to say I attended and graduated from Purdue, a universitythat enjoys a worldwide reputation for excellence."

Stephen Brand takes pride in knowing that during his 25-year career at energygiant ConocoPhillips, he had a reputation as a focused, high-energy leader dedicatedto improving and developing its business.Just as important, he’s convinced the foundation for those leadership and technicalskills — an ability to plan and think strategically — was laid while studying geologyat Purdue.“At Purdue, I developed the knowledge necessary to excel, understand and comprehendthe problems that, unbeknownst to me at the time, I would face during my career,”he says. “On the other side of the equation, I gained the necessary skills to developsound but pragmatic solutions.”That no-nonsense approach was key to his career successes, particularly the threephaseddevelopment of a major natural gas and gas liquids resource in a politicallydisputed area between Timor Leste and Australia.

The project called for construction of offshore production facilities, an offshoreto onshore pipeline and an onshore LNG facility. It also provided Timor Leste, thenewest country in the world at the time, with a significant revenue and employmentsource.Managing this project provided exposure to a unique political situation thatexisted between Timor Leste and Australia, because of the location of the projectin a Joint Petroleum Development Area.“I would have never imagined coming out of university that I would have theOpportunity to work with the United Nations,” he says.

Education

BA, ’71, Geology, University of Minnesota, Duluth

MS, ’73, Geology, Purdue University

PhD ’76, Geology/Earth Sciences, Purdue University

Career highlights

2007-2011 Senior Vice President, Technology R&D, ConocoPhillips

2010 Outstanding Alumni Award, Purdue Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

2010 “Advancing Technology for America’s Transportation Future” study, National Petroleum Council

2009 Developed alternative energy R&D program

2007 Poseidon (Australia) gas condensate discovery

2007 Eagle Ford shale gas/condensate entry and discovery

1998 Bayu-Undan gas condensate development