Christopher A. Smith

Christopher Smith is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy with responsibilities for office operations and managing the oversight of Fossil Energy's Research and Development program (encompassing coal, oil and natural gas) and the U.S. Petroleum Reserves. He was appointed to the Department of Energy in 2009 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for FE's Office of Oil and Natural Gas. Smith served as the Designated Federal Official for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, established by President Obama to investigate the root causes of the Gulf oil spill. Prior to his appointment in October of 2009, Smith served in managerial and analytical positions of increasing responsibility in the private sector. Most recently he spent eleven years with two major international oil companies focused primarily on upstream business development and LNG trading, including three years negotiating production and transportation agreements in Bogotá, Colombia. Smith began his career as an officer in the U. S. Army and served tours in Korea and Hawaii. He subsequently worked for Citibank and JPMorgan in New York City and London in the area of emerging markets and currency derivatives. Smith holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering Management from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from Cambridge University.