CRGP will host Rick Burt as a visiting scholar beginning April 1, 2006. Mr. Burt is the retired Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Bechtel Group Inc, where he was also a member of the Board of Directors.

Prior to Bechtel he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of ABB Americas, and before that at Sandoz (now Novartis) US, where he also served as General Counsel. He was for over 25 years an officer and member of the senior management of major corporations engaged around the world in a range of businesses, including large scale engineering and construction, electrical and industrial products, and the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries. Mr. Burt served as senior legal counsel and policy advisor to these corporations and also headed major departments. He was heavily involved in a wide range of transactions, in resolving major disputes and legal and regulatory compliance matters, in the pursuit of legislative and regulatory action to address business issues, and in structuring corporate architecture.

At CRGP, Mr. Burt will be engaged in a range of advising, research and educational activities, with an emphasis on the following topics:

1) The near term and intermediate future impacts of changes occurring in political, economic and social attitudes (i.e. sentiments of "anti-globalization" and "anti-privatization") on major infrastructure projects.

2) The alignment of contractual risk allocation, governance structures and dispute resolution and other remedies for managing risk in infrastructure projects, with a focus on countries and regions where rule of law and the constraints on governmental actions are different than those encountered in Western countries.

3) The impact of organization-specific attitudes towards risk and processes for risk evaluation and management on whether an organization will take a role in a major infrastructure project.

Posted by rjorr at March 28, 2006 9:06 AM