NESW Solutions

Our Business

The company was created by and is principally owned by Richard H Matzke (RHM), who retired as Vice Chairman of ChevronTexaco in 2002 after successfully concluding four decades of global energy portfolio building.   David S Matzke (DSM), son of RHM, works side by side spear heading new business opportunities.  NESW is structured to maximize the value to its clients of the company's knowledge, experience, and global network of contacts.  As such, the client base is small and can maintain a personal involvement with all projects.

Who We Are

Richard H. Matzke is as a member of the Board of Directors of LUKOIL, Russia’s largest oil company, having been first elected in 2002.  During this time, he was Chairman of the Board’s Strategy and Investment Committee.  Matzke retired from the Board of Directors of Chevron Oil Company in 2002 where he served as Vice Chairman.  Matzke’s career began in 1961 when he joined Chevron as a geologist in Louisiana.  In 1976, he was named assistant to the president of Chevron Corp. and, in 1979, was elected vice president of Chevron Chemical Co.  He was named general manager of international operations staff and director of Caltex Pacific Indonesia in 1982.  In 1986, he was appointed director and president of Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. In November 1989, Matzke was named president of Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc., responsible for directing Chevron’s oil exploration and production activities outside of North America.  He is generally recognized as the primary force behind Chevron’s acquisition of the multi billion barrel Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan, and the construction of the 1000 mile Caspian Pipeline thru southern Russia from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.

Matzke serves as a board member and a member of the corporate governance committee of Eurasia Drilling Company Limited which is the largest provider of onshore drilling services in Russia, providing onshore integrated well construction services and workover services; as well as providing offshore drilling services in the Caspian Sea.  He also serves as a board member of PHI, Inc., a U. S. company that provides aircraft transportation service to the energy and medical industries worldwide.  He serves as Chairman of Astrakhan Oil Corporation, an exploration and production start up company with oilfield developments onshore Russia.  He is a board member of Transnational Energy Corporation., a private US registered company operating globally.

He served as a board member of SBM Offshore NV, an offshore oilfield service supplier in The Netherlands between 2005 and 2008, a member of the Advisory Board of Dubai’s Millennium Global Energy Fund (MGEF), a member of the Advisory Board of Energy City Qatar, and as a member of the International Advisory Board of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation between 2007 and 2009.  He is chairman of the American-Iranian Council, serves on the board of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  Richard H. Matzke is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the US-Russia Business Council.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from Iowa State University, a master’s degree in geology from Pennsylvania State University, and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Mary’s College of California.  In 1996, Matzke was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi.  In 2005, he was awarded Iowa State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni of the Year Award.  Awarded a non-Government (sectoral) medal “For Development of the Russian Oil & Gas Industry” in 2006.  He was the recipient of Russia’s “Independent Director of the Year” national award in 2006, by Russia’s Association of Independent Directors and PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Matzke is a member of the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative Commission, co-hosted by Wolfgang Ischinger, Igor Ivanov, and Sam Nunn under the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.