Patrick Heller is an advisor at NRGI and a senior visiting fellow at the Center on Law, Energy and Environment (CLEE) at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked on legal reform and governance initiatives in the developing world for more than 15 years for organizations including USAID, the U.S. State Department, the Asian Development Bank, Creative Associates International and The International Center for Transitional Justice.

Patrick’s work focuses on the governance of state-owned oil and mining companies and the analysis of extractive industry institutions, contracts and legislation. He contributes extensively to NRGI’s programs of technical assistance to governments and civil society organizations throughout the world, and to NRGI’s capacity development efforts. He has facilitated courses on oil, gas and mining legal frameworks with partner institutions including the University of Oxford (U.K.), Columbia University (U.S.), Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia), the Catholic University of Central Africa (Cameroon) and Externado University (Colombia).

At CLEE, Patrick is researching pathways to sustainability for fossil fuel-producing countries, including tools for governments to better account for uncertainties from climate change as they make long-term economic plans. He is also examining methodologies for incorporating measurements of environmental risks into decisions about whether to proceed with new oil or mining projects.

He holds a law degree from Stanford University and a master’s in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.