Getting to Markets: Natural Resource Projects in Canada
Roundtable Luncheon with Chris Bloomer, Gaétan Caron and James Coleman
Chris Bloomer, President and CEO, CEPA
Chris Bloomer has over 30 years of experience across a range of upstream, downstream, domestic and international energy businesses. He began his career at Shell Canada and moved with increasing responsibility from exploration and production to economics and corporate planning, oil sands development and operations, pipelines and oil and NGL marketing.
Following his tenure at Shell, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Castle Energy where he was responsible for the Canadian crude oil marketing business and US exploration, natural gas production and pipeline operations. Subsequently, he was a Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer at Talon Resources Ltd., a Latin American-focused midstream/pipeline project development and crude oil marketing company.
Chris then went on to spend ten years as a senior executive with Petrobank Energy & Resources, providing leadership throughout a period of significant corporate evolution for the company. Here he held the roles of Vice President Heavy Oil, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and Director. Immediately prior to joining CEPA, he was Chief Executive Officer and Director at Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd.
Throughout his career, pipelines have been an integral aspect of all his business activities in Canada, the United States and Latin America, involving operation of existing pipelines and pioneering new pipelines and access to new markets for both oil and natural gas.
Mr. Bloomer has a degree in Geoscience from the University of Toronto, has served on several public and private Canadian energy company boards and is a member of The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).
Gaétan Caron, Executive Fellow, School of Public Policy (University of Calgary), and independent energy consultant
Gaétan Caron joined the School of Public Policy of the University of Calgary as an Executive Fellow in July 2014. His current areas of work at the School are Indigenous consultation and engagement best practices and public interest determination of energy infrastructure. He lectures on energy policy and regulation and contributes to international partnerships, notably with Mexico. He speaks publicly and responds to media queries on a range of policy matters on behalf of the School. In addition to his work at the School, he provides independent consulting services on energy and regulatory matters. This follows his seven-year tenure (2007 to 2014) as Chair and CEO of the National Energy Board (NEB) of Canada. Prior to his role as Chair and CEO, he served as Vice-Chair (2005 to 2007), Board Member (2003 to 2005) and member of the executive in various staff functions throughout the NEB. Gaétan has chaired major public hearings evaluating pipeline projects and offshore exploration for oil and gas, as well as tolls and tariffs of pipelines. He has spoken regularly at national and international conferences on the role of regulatory agencies in promoting safety, environmental protection and economic efficiency related to energy infrastructure. He has visited Aboriginal communities in the Canadian Arctic, seeking to understand Northern ways of life and incorporating Northern concerns about potential energy exploration and development in the NEB’s regulatory actions. He has appeared before Parliamentary Committees to explain the NEB’s activities and answer questions from elected officials on a broad range of energy and regulatory matters. Gaétan has a Bachelor of Applied Sciences (Rural Engineering) from Laval University and an MBA from the University of Ottawa. He is a member of the Quebec Order of Engineers. He is Honorary Lifetime Member of the Canadian Association of Members of Public Utility Tribunals (CAMPUT) and Commissioner Emeritus with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).
James Coleman, assistant professor at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law and Haskayne School of Business
James Coleman is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law and Haskayne School of Business. His scholarship addresses regulation of North American energy companies, focusing on how countries account for and influence regulation in their trading partners. Professor Coleman teaches courses in energy, business, and administrative law, including International Energy Development, Canadian Energy Management and Regulation, Regulatory Theory and the Law, and Business Associations.
Professor Coleman came to Calgary from Harvard Law School where he served on the faculty as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in Biology, magna cum laude with highest honors in field, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude. After law school, Professor Coleman clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and practiced energy, environmental, and appellate law at Sidley Austin LLP in Washington D.C.
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