ARCO and BP alumnus John Kurz joined Alyeska Pipeline in April of this year as the President and Chief Executive Officer.

“It’s exciting to be back working in Alaska and heading up Alyeska, an iconic Alaskan company,” John said. “Leading an organization and team of this significance is a tremendous responsibility and honor. And who would have predicted that I would do a third tour here? My three tours were actually with three different companies: ARCO, where I started my career in Anchorage in the 80’s working successively on the Prudhoe Bay, Lisburne, and Kuparuk fields; BP in the mid-2000’s heading up Operations for Prudhoe Bay; and now Alyeska."

John met and married his spouse, Cheryl (also an ARCO employee), in Anchorage, all three of his children were born here, and he holds a Master of Science Degree in Engineering Management from the University of Alaska.

It’s exciting to be back working in Alaska and heading up Alyeska, an iconic Alaskan company  - John Kurz

“We certainly have strong connections here,” John said. “After living and working overseas for so long, it has been special to reconnect with family and friends since we have been back. Our three children and their partners already visited in July, where we spent time on the Kenai Peninsula slaying reds, sea kayaking, hiking, and camping. With 75 family and friends joining, we also celebrated the 50 year anniversary of Cheryl’s family owning homestead property just outside Soldotna.”

Prior to joining Alyeska Pipeline, John was on the other side of the world with Australian-based Oil Search/Santos. The company’s Chief Operating Officer, John was involved in oil and gas developments in Papua New Guinea – oil fields that have been around for decades, and a 2-train LNG project sanctioned about 10 years ago. “A 2-train expansion is working through engineering and commercial negotiations,” he said. “I was responsible for all PNG operating activities except major projects. The PNG operations have many of the same issues you’d experience in any operation, so I was able to use my experience in Alaska and elsewhere to address the challenges and opportunities. Moreover, the Papua New Guineans are just wonderful people, and I really enjoyed working with them and helping them develop into a high performance organization. That’s the most rewarding part of the job,” said John.

John shares that he has been fortunate in his career. “I have had some really great opportunities,” he said. “I worked in Indonesia for 6 years, Egypt for 2, Azerbaijan for 7, and lived in Dubai while working in Iraq. Cheryl has traveled the globe with me and we are both thrilled to be back in Anchorage. Prior to University the kids went with us, so they are true third culture kids. The travel bug has also bit us all — Madison, our oldest, has the family lead at about 55 countries. It has been a wonderful experience for all of us for sure,” said John.

It has been special to reconnect with family and friends since we came back  - John Kurz