Hamid Bovard, a veteran Iranian oil industry executive with more than 35 years of operational and managerial experience, was appointed caretaker oil minister Sunday by President Masoud Pezeshkian after the resignation of Mohsen Paknejad was accepted.
Bovard has spent more than two decades of his career in senior management positions inside and outside the Oil Ministry. Much of his professional career has been in operational and managerial organizations affiliated with the National Iranian Oil Co., including the National Iranian South Oil Co., Maroun Oil and Gas Production Co., Iranian Offshore Oil Co. and NIOC.
Who is the caretaker oil minister?
Bovard was born April 27, 1964, in Shushtar, Khuzestan province. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Ahvaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, an MBA in executive management from Sharif University of Technology and a doctorate in management from Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz.
Operational and managerial career
Bovard began his managerial and operational career in 1998 as executive director of an engineering and construction development projects program, a position he held until 2006.
From 2001 to 2005, he served as director of special drilling projects and, from 2006 to 2009, headed the drilling department of the National Iranian South Oil Co.
Bovard served as managing director of Maroun Oil and Gas Production Co. from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, he was appointed managing director of the National Iranian South Oil Co., Iran's largest oil producer, serving in the position for three years.
From 2014 to 2016, he headed Exploration Operations Co., an affiliate of the Oil Industry Pension Fund.
In 2016, Bovard became managing director of the Iranian Offshore Oil Co. and remained in the position until 2019. He subsequently served as an adviser to NIOC's managing director from 2019 to 2020.
From 2020 to 2024, Bovard was managing director of Arman Engineering and Development Co., affiliated with the Executive Headquarters of Imam Khomeini's Order and its Tadbir Holding.
On Aug. 29, 2024, Paknejad appointed Bovard as deputy oil minister and managing director of NIOC, marking his return to the national oil company.
Bovard's more than three decades in the oil industry have included experience in drilling, development projects, onshore and offshore oil production, and senior management of NIOC.
Now, after more than 35 years in various sectors of Iran's oil industry, Bovard has assumed responsibility for leading the Oil Ministry as acting minister under Article 135 of Iran's Constitution.