Juris Doctor, University of New Hampshire Pierce Law Center
Expertise: Client Relationship Management; Technology Management
Industry Experience: Oil and Gas; Energy
As an Associate in Graffeo & Associates, Richard Chidester provides senior consulting support in client relationship management, business development, technology management and commercialization. Mr. Chidester has over 25 years of experience as a project manager and business unit manager in R&D organizations. His areas of specialty include: Developing and implementing marketing and commercialization strategies, international program negotiations, technology transfer models, valuing R&D, applying technology to energy sector industry problems, political and legal analysis, organizational consulting.
Prior to joining Graffeo & Associates, he was Vice President at Battelle Memorial Institute’s Energy and Environmental Division and North American Regional Market Manager for Oil and Gas. In this regard he served as the key account manager for PEMEX, Mexico’s national oil company.
Before joining Battelle he was a Senior Program Manager and Technical Group Manager for IT at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that developed innovative technologies for interpreting large databases though advanced visualization techniques.
He is currently a Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) supporting the Executive Director for Marketing and Commercialization in the development and implementation of an institutional commercialization strategy. That strategy includes development of a revised Intellectual Property Policy, development of an IP portfolio, raising awareness across the institute on IP matters, identifying promising IP and developing commercialization strategies.
He was a Foreign Service Officer for over ten years and served in several senior posts in Latin America including Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Bolivia. He is fluent in Spanish and has combined the skills learned as a diplomat with the technical awareness gained at both PNNL and Battelle to manage the interface between technical institutions and industry while aligning R&D with business objectives to come up with value based solutions.
