Ed Verona is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center covering Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Ukrainian reconstruction aid. He is also the president of Greenfields Resources Inc., a company seeking to develop mineral resources in Panama. He previously served for ten years as a senior director and later senior advisor for McLarty Associates, a Washington-based international strategic advisory firm. Prior to that, he served for five years (2008 to 2013) as president and chief executive officer of the US-Russia Business Council. Before serving that role, Verona was vice president of ExxonMobil Russia, based in Moscow, with responsibility for government and public affairs.

Verona has spent many years in the energy and mining sectors, as well as in public service. He joined the US foreign service in 1989 and was posted as an economic officer in Mexico, Brasilia, and Moscow. He returned to the private sector to serve as executive director of the Moscow-based Petroleum Advisory Forum, where he advised US and international oil and gas companies. Verona then joined Texaco, where he was country manager in Russia and Kazakhstan, and later international government affairs advisor in Washington, DC. Following the Chevron-Texaco merger, he spent two years as Chevron’s vice president for government and public affairs in Latin America, based in Caracas. Verona also served as vice president and Russia country manager for Barrick Gold Corporation, based in Moscow. Verona graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in political science and received a master’s degree in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). He speaks Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese.