Energy

The Oil Industry’s Top Lobbyist Will Go Work For … The Mormon Church?

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Jack Gerard is transitioning out of his post as president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and into a senior leadership position at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Gerard’s appointment to serve as a General Authority Seventy in the Mormon church was announced at the church’s April 2018 general conference held over the weekend. Gerard broke the news to staff at the oil industry trade association in an email Saturday.

“I am humbled and honored to accept this full time senior leadership position, which helps lead the 16 million members of our worldwide church,” Gerard said in the email obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. “As a General Authority of the Church, I will have the privilege and opportunity to travel the world to share my personal witness of the Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Gerard will be moving to Utah after he officially steps down from API in August. Utah, by percentage and by total population, has more Mormons than any other state in the U.S.

Gerard’s new position as a General Authority is mainly administrative and will have him looking after church leaders, missionaries and congregations globally or in a specified area, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’s website.

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