Alumnus Paul Dubetz joins CBE as adjunct professor in new petroleum engineering program

CBE alumnus Paul Dubetz (‘80) has joined CBE as an adjunct assistant professor to help launch CBE’s new petroleum engineering minor. Dubetz has 35 years of experience across a wide range of operational and commercial roles in oil and gas exploration, production operations, natural gas marketing, LNG, oil supply, trading and logistics, and corporate finance. In 2015 he retired from ExxonMobil -- the largest integrated major energy company in the US -- as vice president for commercial operations, ExxonMobil Iraq Ltd. He is very interested in the prospect of teaching and helping students.

“Even during my 35 years in the field, I always had the idea of teaching in the back of my mind,” he said, “so I am excited to get an opportunity to give back some of what I have learned.”

“We are fortunate to have Dr. Ilham El-Monier on board to lead the re-introduction of  the petroleum engineering minor. Given the importance of energy studies today, I was pleased to see the diversity of interest in the introductory class offered this spring, and not just from within chemical and biomolecular engineering. Students from other engineering disciplines and Earth Sciences also signed up,” Dubetz said.

For 25 years of his career, Dubetz lived and worked in such places as Iraq, Italy, Qatar, Indonesia, Singapore, and London. This was a challenge and learning experience for him, he said. “An important lesson I have learned is that, beneath  the cultural and environmental differences one experiences outside the United States, we still share the same qualities and motivations at the core,” Dubetz said.