Energy Executive Chengyu Fu Is New USC Trustee

Article appeared in USC News Oct. 26, 2011.

Chengyu Fu MS ’86, a longtime leader of the Beijing-based China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and current chairman of China Petroleum & Petrochemical Corp., Asia’s largest refiner, was elected to the USC Board of Trustees on Oct. 5.

Fu has more than three decades of experience in the oil industry in China, the world’s largest energy consumer.

“I am pleased to announce the election of Chengyu Fu to the Board of Trustees of the oldest and largest private research university in the American West,” said USC president C. L. Max Nikias. “His leadership, business acumen and international perspective will be invaluable as USC moves forward as a global institution.”

Born in Heilongjiang Province, Fu earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from China’s Northeast Petroleum University.

After seven years of working in the country’s oil industry, he joined the state-owned CNOOC when it was established in 1982. He initially chaired management committees formed in connection with joint ventures between the company and major oil companies such as Amoco, Chevron, Texaco and Phillips Petroleum and went on to hold leadership posts at the company’s subsidiaries. He was named vice president of CNOOC in October 2000, became president two months later, and in October 2003 was appointed chairman and chief executive officer. He was one of the key people involved in making CNOOC a public company, first listed on both the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges in 2001.

In 2005, Fu spearheaded CNOOC’s failed effort to buy Unocal for $18.5 billion, ultimately withdrawing the bid because of political opposition in the United States.

Fu left CNOOC following the announcement of his appointment as chairman of the board of China Petroleum & Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec Group, in April. During his seven-year chairmanship at CNOOC, from 2003 to 2010, the company’s market capitalization grew from $16 billion to $100 billion.

Just weeks before his move to Sinopec Group, Fu - who earned his master’s in petroleum engineering from USC in 1986 - was honored with the Global Leadership in Engineering Award at the 33rd annual USC Viterbi Awards Banquet. In accepting the accolade, he credited his USC education with steering him to lead CNOOC’s transformation from a small company into a competitive international energy company.

Among other honors, Fu was selected as CCTV China Economic Annual Figure of the Year for 2005 and received the CBN/CNBC China Business Leader of the Year award in 2006. Asiamoney named Fu the “Best Executive 2006 - China” and included him in its list of the “Top 100 Influential Businessmen” in 2007. He was named The Most Socially Responsible Business Leader at the Responsible China ceremony in 2008, and in January 2009, China Economic Weekly designated him as one of its “Top 10 Energy and Petrochemical Industry Leaders in China’s 30 Years of Reform and Opening-Up” for 2008.

In January 2010, Harvard Business Review included Fu among the top 50 of its “Best-Performing CEOs in the World.”

A chairman of the Presidium of China Federation of Industrial Economics and vice chairman of the China Chamber of International Commerce, Fu also serves on the board of the United Nations Global Compact, a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. He is a strong proponent of supplying more energy in a cleaner manner while also taking action to protect the environment and combat climate change.

Links:

Fu Chengyu Press conference