No sector has been roiled as much by economic and political turbulence over the past few years than the oil and gas industry.
But while a number of large corporate venturing units, such as ConocoPhillips, have seen significant changes in personnel, Kemal Anbarci, managing executive of Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV), the corporate venturing and innovation unit of US-based oil major Chevron, has built a strong reputation for consistency.
He became head of CTV’s corporate venturing arm in 2013, almost exactly a year before oil prices fell off the proverbial cliff and fell by about two-thirds over the next 18 months before recovering somewhat this year just as Saudi Arabia looks to privatise its $2 trillion-value state oil company, Aramco.
For 2014’s Powerlist, Anbarci said Chevron Technology Ventures had developed a strong position in corporate venturing because it had “stayed the course” since its foundation in 1999.
He said: “What makes Chevron Technology Ventures function extremely well is the continuity of the venture executives, which is key, in my view. We got in people already in Chevron for 15-plus years, so they have credibility within the company, creating a stable venture investment culture.”
With at least 31 exits, including high-profile ones for Illumina and IronPort Systems, the company’s currently has more than 30 portfolio companies and at least 15 limited partner (LP) commitments to venture capital firms.
These LP commitments include Vanguard Ventures, Rockport Capital, Oxford Biosciences, Nth Power, EnerTech Capital, Element Partners, CMEA Ventures, Arch Ventures Partners, Asia Pacific Ventures and Amersand Ventures, a number of which have struggled in their returns through the oil price shock and cleantech challenges over the past few years.
However, Anbarci said: “I cannot and will not endorse a statement that says most of the LP [positions] have struggled. In fact, most of them [the VC funds] are still open and returning on investment. But I can tell you that we have no plans on investing [as] LPs in our current fund.”
Anbarci, who this month celebrates finishing his 25th year with Chevron, replaced Trond Unneland, who had led the unit for nearly six years. Anbarci said: “Trond told me he had the best job in the company. When the opportunity came, I enquired about it. It fitted the companies’ needs to have someone from upstream.”
He reports to Barbara Burger, president of CTV. She replaced Des King in 2013 as president of CTV a few months before Anbarci took over from Unneland.
Anbarci has a master’s degree in operations research and a PhD in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from University of California Irvine.
He also has a degree in petroleum engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.