API President Jack Gerard to step down in August

After 10 years running one of Washington's most influential associations covering all aspects of the oil and natural gas sector, American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard has announced he will step down when his current contract ends in August 2018.

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry. More than 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms.

"We have accomplished what few would have imagined: important public policy victories at all levels of government, and a revitalized association that has expanded globally and added significant strength to its advocacy capabilities,” Gerard said in a statement.

Since Gerard joined API in 2008, association membership grew by almost 50 percent and added members from every sector of the industry. It tripled its growth in global markets, including expansions to Singapore, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro.

“During his tenure, Gerard built an effective grassroots network comprised of 45 million voters with representation in every congressional district who communicate with their elected officials on energy issues,” API said in a statement.

Gerard joined API after serving as president and CEO of two large trade associations: the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council. He worked for almost a decade in the U.S. Senate and House. He is active in several civic organizations, including as an Advisory Board member and past chairman of the National Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America, a board member and former co-chair of The George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management, and chairman of the board of directors for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

Among API’s signature accomplishments during Gerard’s tenure was successfully reshaping a Dodd-Frank Act mandate that would have required oil, gas, and mining companies to report aggregated project payments, exceeding $100,000, made to U.S. and foreign governments for natural resource extraction.

The SEC issued a final rule on the disclosure mandate in August 2012. API, partnering with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sued to block implementation.

Judge John Bates of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia vacated the rule and remanded it back to the Commission. Bates sided with the plaintiffs in their call to invalidate the rulemaking on the grounds that the SEC “misread the statute to mandate public disclosure of the reports," and its decision to deny any exemption was, "arbitrary and capricious.”