Opening General Session Featuring Keynote Address
Sunday, 11 October 2009
3:45–5:15 p.m.

This session features congress keynote speaker T. Boone Pickens, as well as remarks from PMI management and the PMI Board of Directors.

T. Boone Pickens

Founder and chairman, BP Capital Management and author of The First Billion Is the Hardest
As dependency for foreign oil imports continues to rise, gas prices further stress a sluggish economy and force Americans to search for alternative sources of energy. In his keynote address, Pickens will deliver a comprehensive solution for what North America should do to decrease dependence on foreign oil. He will offer open and candid responses to audience questions about the country’s dependence on imported oil, while providing details on how to dramatically enhance energy security.

About T. Boone Pickens:

T. Boone Pickens is one of the nation’s most successful businessmen, first building the nation’s largest independent oil company, Mesa Petroleum, and later reinventing himself in his 70s as one of the most successful investment fund operators with BP Capital, which, during 2008, managed US$4 billion.

In July 2008, Boone launched the Pickens Plan (www.PickensPlan.org), a grassroots campaign aimed at reducing the United States’ crippling addiction to imported oil. His book, The First Billion is the Hardest, also details what this country must do to address the national security and economic threat associated with our continuing and escalating dependence on foreign oil.

Pickens is also aggressively pursuing a wide range of other business interests, from water marketing, alternative wind power (he’s building the world’s largest wind farm), and ranch development initiatives to Clean Energy, a clean transportation fuels company he founded and took public in May 2008 (the eighth entity he has helped go public in his career).

CNBC has dubbed him “Oracle of Oil” for his uncanny knack of predicting oil price movements. His many professional honors include membership in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the Texas Business Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In 1998, the Oil & Gas Investor listed him as one of the “100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum Century.” He was named one of the 2009 world’s 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.