Richard Spooner

Richard Spooner holds B.A and M.A. degrees in Russian Studies from Yale University and while pursuing these studies completed semester programs in Moscow and in Leningrad. In the 1980s he worked as Sr. Project Manager in the Moscow office of the US-USSR Trade & Economic Council and then as Head of the Moscow office of the American Trade Consortium, which included Chevron Corporation, before relocating to Kazakhstan in March of 1992, where for 15 years he coordinated a team of Western legal, financial and technical consultants who advised the Government of Kazakhstan on attracting foreign investment to the oil and gas sector, including the Karachaganak, CPC and Kashagan projects, and then administering those contracts. Subsequently he worked as an independent consultant, providing risk assessment and litigation support to clients already active or considering engagement in FSU countries. He has long-standing relationships with leaders in business and government in Kazakhstan and a unique understanding of how both systems operate and interact. While working in the private sector, where he currently advises a major US corporation on an investment project in the agroindustry, he has monitored and analyzed political, geopolitical and economic developments in Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the entire Caspian region for the last 30 years. Resides in Astana.