Pierce Riemer is director general of the World Petroleum Council, where he is responsible for the secretariat and its 65 member countries. He joined the council in 1999, after nine years with the International Energy Agency, where he set up the greenhouse gas program and was responsible for carbon dioxide capture and storage activities and related projects. Riemer was part of the IEA delegation to the Kyoto Protocol negotiations and liaison with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. for the for the IEA's Energy Technology Data Exchange. Previously he worked on coal utilization research, clean coal technology and power generation at the British Coal Corp. and led similar projects for the National Coal Board and Coal Products Ltd. Riemer holds a Ph.D. in applied chemistry. A chartered chemist, graduate of the Royal Society of Chemistry and fellow of the Energy Institute, Riemer is the author of more than 300 technical papers, 60 magazine features and 15 books. He holds eight patents.