Our People
Our People
Kentex Worland is a privately-held exploration and production company. Our team of energy and financial industry personnel seek out large, high-quality producing oil and gas assets, preferably with substantial remaining development potential. We believe it is our responsibility to make sure that our team members feel safe and secure working here by offering ample safety training and a competitive employee benefits package. Safety is non-negotiable at Kentex. We value the ideas and contributions of all team members throughout the company and make sure to recognize each other’s efforts.
About Our People
Sam Spicer
President & CEO
As Principal/Owner of various energy companies over the past 35+ years, Mr. Spicer’s companies have generated more than $2 billion in incremental enterprise value. He was a founding shareholder of three Texas banks, including Sovereign Bank of Texas with $1.1 billion in assets (former Director & Vice-Chairman of Sovereign) and was a founding member of Ajax Resources with John Schmid. Ajax acquired the Permian Basin assets of W & T Offshore for $376 million in 2015 and sold them in October 2018 for $1.245 billion to Diamondback Energy. Mr. Spicer holds an Accounting degree from Texas Tech University.
John Schmid, P.E
Chief Operating Officer
With more than 41 years of diverse oil and gas engineering and management, Mr. Schmid’s professional background includes U.S. and International experience at Diamond Shamrock, Maxus, YPF, Detroit Edison/DTE (Operations Manager, Barnett Shale), GE, and Ajax. For 20 years, he served at Diamond Shamrock Oil and Gas and Maxus (Officer level; Rockies Region prior to sale to YPF of Argentina) as well as Country Manager of Ecuador for YPF. Mr. Schmid was an original Member and COO of Ajax Resources, LLC. As COO of Ajax, through recompletions, reworks, and drilling 17 new horizontal wells, he brought production up from 1,852 BOPD at acquisition to 11,002 BOPD at time of sale. He holds a P.E. degree from Colorado School of Mines and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Regis University.
Vice President of Land
Mr. Osborn has served as Land Manager/VP-Land for a variety of E&P Companies. With more than 45 years in the industry, he has filled Committee Chairman and leadership roles in the American Association of Professional Landmen (CPL) and was Past President of the North Texas Energy Council. Mr. Osborn has served as an Independent Consultant for a number of companies, including Atmos Energy Corp. and ALCOA Aluminum Company. Non-industry experience includes being Former Assistant to the Mayor, City of Indianapolis and U.S. Senator for Indiana. During that period, Mr. Osborn was named Man of the Year for the Indianapolis Junior Chamber of Commerce. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Indiana State University.
Alex Pearson
Vice President of Finance
Mr. Pearson began work at Kentex as a Business Analyst and now serves as Vice President, Finance. His responsibilities include analyzing company financials, directing accounting operations, and providing strategic guidance around financial operations and company growth. Mr. Pearson graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Economics and minors in commercial real estate, business, and energy management. After graduating, Mr. Pearson immediately started in the energy industry as an M&A Analyst for a small independent, performing decline curve analysis, developing valuation models, and conducting due diligence reviews on over $2.5 billion of acquisition price recommendations.
Doug Craig
Vice President of Legal
Mr. Craig has more than 40 years’ experience with upstream and downstream energy transactions, including acquisitions and sales of properties and facilities, due diligence, environmental, and regulatory. He has served as in-house corporate counsel, founder of his own firm, and former co-chair of the energy practice of Winstead, Seachrist & Minick. Mr. Craig was a former councilman for the city of Hunter’s Creek and served on the Advisory Board of the UT School of Biomedical Informatics. He’s also a Lifetime Committeeman for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo and a Texas Exes Lifetime Member. Mr. Craig is a member of the Texas, New York and Houston Bar Associations, and he earned a BA (with honors) and JD from University of Texas at Austin.
Jim Linville
Manager of Operations Engineering
Mr. Linville has more than 35 years of experience as a petroleum engineer, with 20-plus years in a management position with focus on field operations. Mr. Linville served for seven years with Devon Energy (Operations Manager) in the Rockies, and he has experience in drilling, completions, workovers, acquisitions and divestitures. Mr. Linville received a B.S. in Engineering from New Mexico Tech and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Marshall University.
Gary Ahrens
Exploration Consultant
Mr. Ahrens received a BS in Physics from Santa Clara University in 1973 and a MS in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 1976. He has over 48 years of E&P experience in both conventional and unconventional oil and gas plays in the Lower 48 and offshore Gulf Coast regions of the United States. Mr. Ahrens founded his company, EPIC Exploration, L.L.C., in 1993 with an emphasis on advanced workstation-based exploration and drilling technologies in an effort to reduce risks and enhance exploration efficiency. Prior to EPIC, Mr. Ahrens served as Exploration Manager for Cox Exploration, Inc., Division Geophysicist for MGF Oil Corporation, District Geophysicist for Texaco, Inc. and Geophysicist for Minerals Exploration Company (a subsidiary of Union Oil Company). Mr. Ahrens is an emeritus member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Nathan Langhenry
Controller
Mr. Langhenry earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin specializing in financial reporting and assurance. After graduating, Mr. Langhenry earned his CPA certification and served with KPMG as an associate and senior associate in the audit practice with a primary focus on real estate, private equity, and financial services. This provided experience with fair value modeling over a wide range of asset classes as well as risk assessment over reporting procedures to ensure US GAAP and PCAOB compliance. He serves as the Accounting Specialist for Kentex overseeing accounting procedures and reporting.
Robb Thiel
Field & Plant Foreman
A lifelong resident of Worland with strong ties to the community, Robb has a mechanical background with 14+ years in the oil and gas industry, the last 9 with this facility. He spends his free time at the lake or in the mountains.
Engineering Consultant
Mr. Graham is a licensed P.E. with 40 years of diversified petroleum engineering experience, including Devon New Ventures Team (Sr. Reservoir Engineer), Halliburton, and Vintage Petroleum. His specific expertise includes production, completions, reservoir engineering, A&D evaluations and unconventional resource exploitation. Mr. Graham served as Devon New Ventures team leader where he directly evaluated, presented to Senior Management, and secured funding approval for over $1.5 billion of property acquisitions, including $750 million in the Powder River Basin. He holds an Engineering degree from the University of Alabama.
Paul Strickland
Engineering Consultant
Mr. Strickland’s experience spans more than 45 years of diversified petroleum engineering, management, and problem-solving (Newfield Exploration, Vintage Petroleum, Wagner Oil, Texas Energy Holdings). He served as Operations Manager and Petroleum Engineer, Netherland, Sewell & Associates (NSAI). His specific expertise includes streamlining operations/LOE reduction, artificial lift, and EOR. Mr. Strickland holds an Engineering degree from Auburn University.