Leadership

Pierre Conner
Executive Director, Tulane Energy Institute, and Professor of Practice

Pierre Conner is the Executive Director of the Tulane Energy Institute, which oversees energy-related academic programs for careers in the energy industry and related banking, consulting, financial, technology and trading firms.

Conner brings nearly 40 years of experience in energy operations and finance to the Freeman School. Prior to joining Freeman, he was the President of Capital One Securities, an energy equity boutique investment banking subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corporation. Early in his career, he joined Southcoast Capital as an energy analyst and rose through the organization to Head of Equity Sales Research and Trading, researching and analyzing hundreds of energy companies along the way and guiding the organization through multiple acquisitions and expanding capital markets services.

Prior to his move to capital markets, Conner was engineering manager for Exxon’s Domestic Drilling Organization. He was engaged in operations from the Gulf of Mexico to offshore California to the North Slope of Alaska, and he worked on the Exxon Mobil merger.

Conner is also a Professor of Practice in Management Science. He teaches Energy Markets, Economics and Policy to undergraduates and Energy Projects to graduate students in the Master of Management in Energy program.

 

Eric Smith
Associate Director, Tulane Energy Institute, and Professor of Practice

As Associate Director of the Tulane Energy Institute, Eric Smith draws on 36 years of experience in the petrochemical industry and in the international offshore drilling and construction sectors.

A respected authority on energy-related issues, he responds to local and national media on energy-related questions, providing market analysis and economic research on a variety of issues affecting the energy sector, and he presents his research nationally and internationally. In addition, he teaches in the Master of Management in Energy program and in the energy specialization for undergraduate students.

He is the Energy Committee chairman for the World Trade Center of New Orleans and has served as a consultant to Louisiana’s Department of Economic Development and to Greater New Orleans, Inc. In addition, he has served on the city’s energy advisory board to assist with improving the efficiency of electric power generation and distribution.