CHARIF SOUKI - Executive Chairman, Tellurian

Charif Souki co-founded Tellurian with Martin Houston in February 2016 and serves as Executive Chairman. Tellurian is developing an integrated global gas business beginning with its first project Driftwood LNG, an ~ 27.6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the United States Gulf Coast.

Charif began his career as an investment banker and spent 20 years specializing in financing small capitalization companies in the energy industry. He founded Cheniere Energy in 1996, helping to create the North American LNG export industry in the wake of the shale revolution. Charif served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer and President, and ultimately built an LNG complex with an enterprise value of $30 billion, with over 30 mtpa of liquefaction under construction and 9 mtpa permitted at two facilities, Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi.

He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut, as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and on the International Advisory Board for the Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital.  Charif received a BA from Colgate University and an MBA from Columbia University.