Daniel Yergin

Daniel Howard Yergin (born February 6, 1947) is an American author, speaker, energy expert, and economic historian. Yergin is vice chairman of S&P Global. He was formerly vice chairman of IHS Markit, which merged with S&P in 2022. He founded Cambridge Energy Research Associates, which IHS Markit acquired in 2004. He has authored or co-authored several books on energy and world economics, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning '' The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power,'' (1991) '' The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World'' (2011), and ''The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations'' (2020).

Yergin's articles and op-eds on energy, history, and the economy have been published in publications such as ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and the ''Financial Times''. All of Yergin's books have been drafted in long-hand. Currently a director on entities such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the United States Energy Association, he is also a trustee of the Brookings Institution and a long-term advisor to several U.S. administrations, as well as chairman of the annual CERAWeek energy conference.

Early life and education

Yergin was born on February 6, 1947 in Los Angeles, California. His father Irving Yergin worked at Warner Brothers and was editor of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' and a former journalist in Chicago. His mother Naomi Yergin was a sculptor and painter. Yergin is Jewish. He attended Beverly Hills High School.Redburn, Tom
"'Energy Future' Goes Beyond Ivory Tower"
, ''Los Angeles Times'', August 19, 1979. Retrieved December 15, 2007. "Fifteen years ago, Daniel Yergin left Beverly Hills High School to attend Yale University and, except for summer jobs and brief visits, he hasn't been back here since." He received his BA from Yale University in 1968, where he wrote for the '' Yale Daily News'' and was founder of ''The New Journal'' in 1967. He was also a member of the prank senior society, The Pundits and the literary society, Elizabethan Club.

He received his M.A. in 1970 and his PhD in international history from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. While at Cambridge, he wrote for various British magazines as well as ''The Atlantic'', where he was a contributing editor, and ''The New York Times Magazine''. He has honorary doctorates from Dartmouth College, Colorado School of Mines, University of Houston, and the University of Missouri.

Career

1970s

Early in his career, Yergin worked as a contributing editor for ''New York'' magazine. Through 1980, he was a lecturer at the Harvard Business School and, until 1985, a lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School. Yergin's first book, ''Shattered Peace: The Origins of the Cold War and the National Security State'' (1977), was partly based upon his doctoral dissertation and focused on the origins of the Cold War. It was named "best book of the year" by the National Historical Society.

In the mid-1970s, while a post-doctoral fellow, he began to take a particular interest in energy in his writing. Basing the book on four years of research, with Robert B. Stobaugh he co-authored and co-edited ''Energy Future: The Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School'' in 1979. According to the ''Los Angeles Times'', the book "caused a considerable stir with its optimistic view of the possibilities of energy conservation and such alternative sources as solar power." It proved to be a ''The New York Times'' bestseller, ultimately selling 300,000 copies in six languages.

Within its first year of release, Yergin and Stobaugh were called to Washington, D.C. several times to testify before Congressional committees. He also advised James Schlesinger, the first US energy secretary, around the time of the Iranian revolution. According to ''Reuters'', "since then he has given advice to every administration."

1980s–1990s

He founded Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) with Jamey Rosenfield in 1982 with the purchase of a $2 file cabinet from The Salvation Army. With Yergin as president, the energy research and consulting firm was created as a "quasi think-tank and source of energy industry analysis."

Yergin is arguably best known for his fourth book, '' The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power'' (1991). It became a number-one bestseller that won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1992 and the Eccles Prize for the best book on economics for a general audience, selling around 700,000 copies in 17 languages. The book was adapted into a PBS/BBC
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