The rest of the 100: Richard Erskine, head of Statoil Technology Invest

Richard Erskine, head of Norway state-owned Statoil’s corporate venturing unit, moved to the oil major in 2012 from venture capital firm Energy Capital Management (ECM).

ECM had managed Statoil’s portfolio companies but the oil major brought new and some existing deals back in-house under Statoil Technology Invest as the venture firm picked up a mandate from Saudi Arabia’s oil group, Aramco. Erskine at the time said: “The reason for this is that we need a close and good collaboration with the technology users in Statoil.”

In April last year, and as part of Erskine’s move, Statoil extended the advisory agreement with ECM whereby ECM manages a number of investments made by Statoil in oil and gas and renewable energy technology companies. The extension was granted as a result of the positive progress made by ECM in developing Statoil’s investment portfolio since the agreement was first entered into in 2008.