Dr. Xavier Chen is President of the Beijing Energy Club (www.beijingenergyclub.org) – a Beijing-based high-level forum and think-tank on Chinese and global energy issues, since its creation in 2008. Membership of the Club includes China’s most prominent energy experts, senior energy company executives, government officials, and leading experts from around the world.

Since January 2020, Dr. Chen works as part-time advisor for a number of companies and organisations including Zhejiang Energy Group – China’s largest provincial state-owned energy company; Trina Solar Group – one of China’s largest solar energy companies; and senior consultant for the Asian Development Bank.

Between June 2018 and December 2019, Dr. Chen was Chief Strategy Officer of ENN Group – one of China’s largest private energy companies (US$ 30 billion revenue), where was in charge of the Group’s strategy, performance and new business development.

Dr. Chen worked four and half years (January 2014 - May 2018) for Statoil (now equinor) – Norway’s largest energy company, as China Country President. Despite the political tension between Norway and China (due to Nobel Peace Prize issue) between 2010 and 2016, Dr. Chen successfully managed Statoil’s China relationship and achieved the company’s US$3 billion per year of crude oil sales to China in 2015 and 2016, and expanded the company’s reach to China’s renewables and innovation space.

With Statoil’s permission, Dr. Chen joined the Chinese bidding team for the Presidency of the International Gas Union (IGU) in 2017 and played the most critical role in securing the Chinese IGU Presidency 2021-2024.

From August 2003 to December 2013, Dr. Chen worked for BP in China, initially at the Gas and Power division in charge of developing China’s first LNG receiving terminal – Guangdong Dapeng LNG. He was promoted to the position of Vice President in 2006, in charge of different areas, ending up as VP for Policy and Business Integration.

Before joining BP, Dr. Chen worked for 8 years at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, where he served consecutively as 1) Senior Economist at the Division of Asia-Pacific and Latin America in charge of India and South East Asia （1996-1997）; 2) Chief of Staff to the IEA Executive Director （1997-2000）; 3) China Program Director (2000-2003).

As Chief of Staff of the IEA from Sept 1997 to Oct 2000, he assisted the Executive Director in leading this world’s most authoritative energy agency, including annual programme of work and budget, its relationship with the OECD, preparing the Executive Director’s official missions as well as the formulation the Agency’s policies.

As China Program Director, he significantly improved the IEA’s relationship with China, recommended the Chinese government in the creation of today’s National Energy Administration, and published the IEA’s first in-depth study on China’s gas market.

From 1993 to 1996, Dr. Chen worked for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was seconded to the Asian Institute of Technology, teaching courses on energy economics and markets and conducting research on Asian energy and environmental policies.

From 1988 to 1993, Dr. Chen worked as research engineer at the Institute of Energy Policy and Economics (IEPE) of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Grenoble, France.

Xavier Chen graduated from China’s Zhejiang University in 1985, and obtained MS in energy technology from the Asian Institute of Technology in 1987 and Ph.D. in Energy Economics from the University of Grenoble, France in 1993.

He is author of two books “Changing Our Future by Changing Energy – China’s route to tackle the challenges” (Xinhua Press, 2008, in Chinese) and “Developing China’s Natural Gas Market – the energy policy challenges” (IEA/OECD, 2002), both have significant influence on China’s energy policies.