Emma Brossard

Early life and education Emma Beatriz Brossard y Jacobsen was born on October 1, 1928, in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her mother, Alice Thelma Jacobsen was of Danish and Venezuelan descent. Through her father, Emma Brossard had an early introduction to the Venezuelan oil industry. Indeed, she was raised in Venezuela, her great-great-grandfather started the first oil company in Venezuela in 1878, and when Gene Brossard founded Mene Grande's oil camp San Tomé, Venezuela in 1940, the family moved there. After graduation, she worked for Mene Grande in San Tomé, Venezuela. On 21 November 1951, Brossard married law student, George I. Peterson at St. Raphael's Cathedral in Madison, Wisconsin. Her master's thesis was titled The Military Government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. She received her doctorate in political science from CGU in 1971, writing her dissertation on Rómulo Betancourt, a former president of Venezuela. From 1975 to 1982 she was visiting professor, and then associate professor of government, University of West Florida, Pensacola.

Brossard Petroleum Consultants With her expertise in the Venezuelan oil industry, Brossard formed the Houston-based Brossard Petroleum Consultants, a firm that advised the Venezuelan petroleum industry. Brossard's opinions on events in the oil industry, particularly those involving Venezuela, were often quoted in the media. she argued that President Chavez was destroying the Venezuelan oil industry. Brossard stated in 2005, "Venezuelan oil fields had a depletion rate of 25 per cent annually [and] there had to be an investment of US$3.4 billion a year to keep up its production." "But since Chavez has become president there has been no investment." and was buried in her family's cemetery plot at St. Jerome's Catholic Cemetery, in Columbus, Wisconsin. She was recognized as an "authority on the international oil trade."

Books E.B. Brossard (1983). Petroleum--Politics and Power. PennWell Books, 254 pp. . E.B. Brossard (1993). Petroleum research and Venezuela's INTEVEP: The Clash of the Giants. PennWell Books/INTEVEP, 211 pp. . E.B. Brossard (1994). (in Spanish) Ruta Y Destino De La Investigacion Petrolera En Venezuela. INTEVEP, 314 pp. . E.B. Brossard (2001). Power and Petroleum, Venezuela, Cuba and Colombia: A Troika? BookMasters, Inc., 254 pp.