USC Elects New Trustee
Chengyu Fu (MS ’86), chairman of Asia’s largest refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., will return to USC to serve on the Board of Trustees after years of entrepreneurial leadership and environmental advocacy in the oil industry. The energy executive and Viterbi alum’s resume boasts more than three decades of experience in China, now the world’s leading energy consumer.
“I am pleased to announce the election of Chengyu Fu to the Board of Trustees of the oldest and largest private research university in the American West,” said USC president C. L. Max Nikias. “His leadership, business acumen and international perspective will be invaluable as USC moves forward as a global institution.”
Fu was born in Heilongjiang Province in 1951 and graduated from China’s Northeast Petroleum Institute with a degree in geology. He later received his master’s in petroleum engineering from USC and went on to lead Beijing-based China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) from 2003 to 2010. During Fu’s seven-year tenure as chairman and CEO, CNOOC’s market capitalization grew from $16 billion to an estimated $100 billion.
This market explosion led to one of Fu’s highest honors in 2010, when Harvard Business Review named him among the top 50 best-performing CEOs in the world. Shortly after, he left CNOOC to accept a position at China Petroleum & Petrochemical (Sinopec Group), where he has since been serving as chairman and recently led $17.6 billion of global acquisitions. The following year, Fu was presented with the Global Leadership in Engineering Award at the 33rd annual USC Viterbi Awards Banquet.
“I am very thankful to the Viterbi School for honoring and inviting me,” Fu said during his acceptance speech at the April 2011 event. “I am fortunate to have been a student at USC 27 years ago.”
“My education here steered me on to lead CNOOC from a small company into a competitive international energy company. Today we are faced with a rapidly changing world, particularly in the emerging market," he said. "We not only need to supply more energy in a cleaner manner, but also take action to protect the environment and combat climate change.”
Fu went on to thank USC for supplying him with both the “knowledge and talent” required to take such action.
