Atlantic Council

Biography

John R. Lyman

John R. Lyman is the director of the Energy and Environment Program.

He has been active in the Council’s Energy and Environment program since 1988, having become involved when he was corporate vice president for planning, reporting to the office of the chairman at Amoco Corporation. He was named director of the program on January 1, 2005. At the time he was responsible for organizing and reporting on the Council’s project "Clean Air for Asia: China-India-Japan-United States Cooperation to Reduce Air Pollution in China and India" that was initiated in 2000 and the project "A Marshall Plan for Energy, Water and Agriculture in Developing Countries" that is still under refinement. Previously, he was a regular participant in the annual US-Japan Energy Dialogues and served on the Council’s projects on Nuclear Power, Russian and Ukrainian energy policy and US energy policy.

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963, he served two and a half years as a special assistant to the general manager of the East African Railways and Harbors in Nairobi, Kenya and was responsible for assessing new rail and harbor facilities throughout East Africa.

Upon returning to the United States, he joined Amoco International Oil Company in 1966. Over 28 years, he served in a number of functions impacting oil and gas, upstream and downstream operations, chemical operations, and diversification moves into solar and bio-energy. He initially started as a staff specialist responsible for international forecasting of energy pricing, supply/demand models, tanker demand and pricing, and regional market and political analysis. After serving as manager of consolidated budgets and control reports for Amoco Corporation, in 1975 he was appointed division controller of Amoco International with responsibility for worldwide accounting and reporting of refining/marketing, crude oil supply and transportation, and oil and gas exploration and production for all countries outside North America.

In 1980 he was reassigned to Amoco Corporation where he held a series of assignments involving worldwide responsibilities as assistant treasurer (long-term financing); general manager, auditing; vice president, information services; and vice president, planning economics and development. In the latter assignment he was accountable to the chairman’s office for the development and reassessment of long-term strategy for a corporate refocusing on shareholder value through a realignment of assets and expense reductions.

In 1990 he was named vice president, planning and administration in Amoco Oil Company, the marketing-refining arm of Amoco Corporation. In this position he was responsible for strategic planning, controllers, information services, regulatory affairs, credit card/motor club customer service center, and imperial casualty. In 1993, Amoco decided to reenter the international downstream business, and he was given additional responsibility for Amoco Oil’s international operations in China, Russia, and Mexico, and became accountable for cross subsidiary plans for entering Mexico.

While employed at Amoco, he served on the American Petroleum Institute’s committees on finance, auditing and statistics. Under his chairmanship the latter committee developed the petroleum industry’s first report on environmental performance. In 1991 he was co-chairman of a committee on environmental policy reporting to the president of Azerbaijan. He also served on the District 65 School Board in Evanston, was a founding director of the US National Lekotek, which provides resources and counseling to the families of children with special needs, and served as a director of the National Council on Economic Education.

After retiring from Amoco in 1994, he served as vice president of Mercer Management Consulting and later became an independent consultant with Integrated Economic Solutions, who specialized on environmental matters. By 2000 he was regularly engaged as a consultant to the Atlantic Council’s Energy and Environment Program.

He received a master's degree in industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and a BA from Yale in economics in 1961.