Charles Wayne Fischer (21 March 1950 – 17 June 2020) was the president and chief executive officer of
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
-based
Nexen Inc until December 2008.
He previously headed a U.S.-Canada working group on clean energy within the Clean Energy Dialogue, formed during a summit between the Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
and U.S. President
Barack Obama.
Career
Fischer has an extensive career in the Canadian
extractive industry
Extractivism is the process of extracting natural resources from the Earth to sell on the world market. It exists in an economy that depends primarily on the extraction or removal of natural resources that are considered valuable for exportation w ...
. In the 1980s he worked for
TransCanada Pipelines and Encor Energy Corporation Inc.. In 1994, he began work for Nexen as senior vice president, exploration and production, North America. He was appointed to the Nexen Board in 2000 and became president and CEO on June 1, 2001.
He previously co-chaired the Alberta Climate Change Central board.
In April 2009, the Canadian government named him as a head of one of three climate change working groups as part of the Clean Energy Dialogue with the United States. Several organizations have criticized this appointment, including the
Sierra Club of Canada
Sierra Club Canada (SCC) is a Canadian environmental organization. Terry A. Simmons incorporated the Sierra Club BC in 1969, affiliating the local organization with the Sierra Club of the United States. Several members of the club were promine ...
.
In December 2008, Fischer held over 500,000 common shares in Nexen, then valued at approximately C$9.5 million, and options on three million more shares.
Fischer remained a registered lobbyist in Canada, in January 2009, in his capacity as the responsible officer for Nexen.
Fischer is also a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the
Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta
The 'Libin Cardiovascular Institute'' is an entity of Alberta Health Services and the University of Calgary. It connects all cardiovascular research, education and clinical care in Southern Alberta. The Institute coordinates the activities of o ...
.
In 2019, he was appointed to
Order of Canada and, in July 2020, appointed posthumously to the
Alberta Order of Excellence.
Education
Fischer received a B.Sc. in chemical engineering (1971) and an MBA in finance (1982) from the
University of Calgary. He also earned an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Calgary in 2004.
Death
Fischer died in Calgary, Alberta on June 17, 2020.
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Charlie
1950 births
2020 deaths
Businesspeople from Saskatchewan
Canadian chief executives
People from Saskatoon
University of Calgary alumni
Officers of the Order of Canada
Members of the Alberta Order of Excellence