Profile

Paul Kelly (Director Emeritus Gulf of Mexico Foundation).

Paul L. Kelly was Senior Vice President of Rowan Companies, Inc., with responsibility for special projects and government and industry affairs. Rowan is a major provider of international and domestic offshore contract drilling and through its subsidiary, LeTourneau, Inc., manufactures mobile offshore jack-up drilling rigs, oilfield equipment and heavy equipment for the mining and forestry industries.

Mr. Kelly represented the oil service/supply industry on the U.S. Secretary of Interior’s Outer Continental Shelf Policy Committee during the past four administrations, serving as chairman of the Committee from 1994 to 1996, and is a director of the International Association of Drilling Contractors and the National Ocean Industries Association.

From 1985 to 1987 Mr. Kelly served as managing director of British American Offshore Ltd., London, Rowan’s main contracting entity in the North Sea. He has written widely on the subject of energy policy and is a member of the Editorial Board of World Oil. He has appeared on behalf of industry in numerous Congressional and federal agency hearings dealing with offshore oil and gas issues. Most recently he was appointed by President Bush to serve on the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, the first commission of its kind in over thirty years tasked with examining the major issues affecting America’s coasts and oceans.

Mr. Kelly has appeared in several fora discussing U.S. adherence to the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law and a member of the Oceanography Development Council at Texas A&M University. He holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from Yale University.