Biography

Simon Blakey (he/him) is a leading authority on the European energy industry and its global dependencies, in particular the Europe-Russia natural gas relationship and its changing character from the 1980s to today. With four decades of experience at the intersection of geopolitics, energy economics, climate change, working on government policies and business strategies, Simon has provided strategic advice to corporations, and energy policy advice to governments and government agencies around the world. Most of his career has been with Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now S & P Global Commodities Insights, where he is a Senior Adviser). He has also spent five years at the International Energy Agency in Paris, and three years as Special Envoy at an industry association in Brussels.

Simon is a co-author, together with Daniel Yergin (Pulitzer Prize) and Professor Thane Gustafson (Georgetown University) of several landmark studies on the Russian-European commercial and political relationship, including the evolution of the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis of 2009 and the European response. Simon is a regular speaker/chair at CERAWeek (the energy sector Davos) and other high-level global energy and strategy gatherings.

As a Senior Visiting Fellow at the STG, he will be consulting colleagues for wide and diverse perspectives on future frameworks for global governance, including views on the future of Russia in its relations with Europe and the world. He expects this diversity of view to be valuable input for a book he is writing, developing plausible scenarios for the future of Russia and the Russian-European relationship.

Fields of expertise