Alaska Gov. Bill Walker appointed Hollis French to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC). A former state senator from Anchorage, French had a long career in Alaska’s oil industry prior to his work in the legislature. After moving to Alaska in 1978, French went to work on Shell Platform A, five miles offshore in Cook Inlet. His North Slope career started in 1979 with Shell, where he worked his way up to a production operator. In 1984, French began work for ARCO as a production operator and was promoted to lead operator. French will bring 13 years of hands-on oil field experience to the job. He left the oil industry in 1992 to attend law school, ultimately receiving his juris doctor from Cornell Law School in 1995. Upon graduating, he returned to Alaska where he worked as a prosecutor in the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office for six years. In 2002, French was elected to the Alaska Senate, where he served for 12 years and was a member of the Senate Bipartisan Working Group and Chair of the Judiciary Committee.