Board of Directors

ASPO-USA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Randy Udall, Board President director of the non-profit Community Office of Resource Efficiency since 1994, lives in Carbondale, Colorado. Since the mid-1990s, Randy has presented an estimated 50 sessions about peak oil at national conferences, plus authored “When Will the Joyride End” (1998; posted on this website) and “Methane Madness” (2000).

Richard (Rick) Block, Treasurer Retired businessman and energy watcher/investor living in New Jersey. Worked in media liaison and outreach for the 2006 Boston Conference and helps organize the ASPO-USA Conferences. Rick studied physics at Temple University and has been an owner of - and a consultant on energy efficiency for - a wide variety of manufacturing and retail businesses.

Jim Baldauf, is a Co-founder and Director of ASPO-USA and served as the lead organizer of the 2007 Houston Peak Oil Conference. Jim’s background as a life-long environmental activist and a Texas oilman prove that energy and ecology are inextricably linked. His work in corporate communications and non-profit public education led him to organize and speak at several peak oil outreach meetings prior to the founding of ASPO-USA. He works and lives with his wife Rosalind in Austin, Texas.

Debbie Cook, has served five years on the Huntington Beach, California City Council, serving as Mayor in 2002. She has served on many regional boards including SCAG Regional Council, SanDAG Borders Committee, Orange County Sanitation District, County of Orange Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission, Pacific Cable Television Authority, State of California Desalination Task Force, and League of California Cities Administrative Policy Committee. She is currently serving as 1st VP for the Orange County Division of the League of California Cities. Debbie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth Science from Cal State Long Beach, a Jurisdoctorate from Western State College of Law, and a license to practice law in California. She is also a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government National Preparedness Leadership Initiative and Leadership Southern California.

Richard Lawrence, One of ASPO-USA’s original co-founders in 2005, Dick Lawrence graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Physics. For most of his professional career, he worked for Digital Equipment designing graphics workstations, and later for Intel developing processors for cellphones and PDAs.

In 1986 he read the seminal work Beyond Oil by Gever, Kaufmann et al, which was his introduction to the Hubbert curve, the reality of depletion, and a wake-up call to a nation already addicted to oil.  By 2001 the Internet and energy-related web sites made it possible to network with others around the world having similar concerns about our global industrialized civilization and its appetite for fossil fuels. As a result of that improved communication, Dick attended annual ASPO meetings in Europe beginning in 2002.  At the Berlin meeting, he presented a proposal for dynamic-systems modeling of world energy flow, for modeling future energy scenarios and as a tool for energy policy decisions.  Modeling work commenced in 2007 and first results were presented at the ASPO-USA Houston conference that fall.

Dick’s experience with ASPO groups overseas will assist in formulating the program for ASPO-USA’s 2009 International Peak Oil Conference to be held in Denver, Colorado, Nov. 1-3.  An avid conservationist, Dick makes a point of riding his bicycle or walking whenever possible.

Ron Swenson, is an expert in solar and renewable energy technologies. He holds multiple technical degrees from StanfordUniversity including an MS in Mechanical Engineering. He has held numerous public service positions. View complete resume’.