Ryan Lance is a petroleum engineer with 31 years of oil and natural gas industry experience in senior management and technical positions with ConocoPhillips, predecessor Phillips Petroleum and various divisions of ARCO. He has been elected to serve as chair of the American Petroleum Institute during 2016. Mr Lance is an advocate for charities benefiting youth through his service on the board of Spindletop International, a board member of the Montana Tech Foundation, and the advisory council of the University of Texas Energy Institute. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering from Montana Tech in Butte in 1984.