Craig Kennedy is a historian, energy commentator, and a retired international finance professional. He worked for 20 years advising corporate clients worldwide on capital raising and strategic transactions, first with Morgan Stanley, then with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was a vice chairman. In the early 1990s, he opened the Moscow office of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Prior to that, he taught at Harvard College. He has spoken widely on Russia, finance, and energy.
Craig has been writing a history of Russia’s oil industry since 1860 and how it has affected the emergence of civil society. He has served as chairman of Pushkin House, an independent U.K. cultural foundation, and in other volunteer public service roles. In addition to his historical research, Craig also analyzes the impact of sanctions on the Russian oil and gas industry. He collaborates closely with the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions and publishes some of his analysis on his Substack, "Navigating Russia."
Craig received a B.A., summa cum laude, in Slavic languages and literatures from Harvard College, an M.Lit. in Turkic languages from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. in history and Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. His dissertation examined the emergence of 16th century Muscovy as an ascendant Eurasian power.
