A Candidate Placed; One Year Into the Job

September 3, 2024 – The Energists is a boutique executive search firm focused on the energy sector. Its client list is diverse across the energy industry, geographies, and business scenarios. A boutique, high integrity firm established in 1979, The Energists operates exclusively within the energy industry. Its staff comprises accomplished industry professionals and leaders, each with their own area of expertise. Since inception, The Energists has developed a reputation for identifying and recruiting high impact technical and leadership talent for notable organizations within the energy domain. They are focused on the talent needs within the sector including power and utilities (conventional, renewable, and storage); upstream, midstream, and downstream oil & gas; oilfield services and equipment (OFSE), consulting (EPCs), transportation (air/land/sea – multi-modal), investment banking, and non-bank financial services including private equity and debt (RBL/ABL).

The Energists’ Jon Hill recently checked in with Tony Meszaros, CEO at Western Gulf Water Services. A 2023 placement for the firm, Mr. Meszaros just completed his first year in post and The Energists were keen to debrief and see how things were going. Mr. Hill asked Mr. Meszaros how does life compares to his first quarter in post. “A little over a year into the new position and Western Gulf Water Services is a different organization than day one,” he said. “Scaling a relatively new business is no easy task. It requires ideas, talented people, a synergistic culture and a full understanding of the product or service at hand.”

“As in any new role, I was highly motivated to take the company to new heights,” Mr. Meszaros said. “I realized in the first few days this was the right role for me. It was going to take some creativity and sheer determination. The pieces for success were in place. All needed to be brought together and functioning in sync. The company needed leadership and direction. The board needed commonality.”

Mr. Meszaros explains that his biggest challenge is that operations, service deliverability and safety were and are impeccable. “There is a great team delivering for the customer every day,” he said. “Impressively talented people with the know-how to deliver our product efficiently and reliably while exceeding customer’s specification. We have implemented the necessary preventative maintenance planning and quality management systems our customers require.”

Driving Results

“In regard to business development, we needed to be in control of our own destiny,” Mr. Meszaros said. “The company needed more exposure. Regional sales were added, and a digital footprint was implemented. We have maintained strong industry partnerships and are strategically increasing value add partnerships as needed. Business systems were in place and needed to be instilled across the team and integrated into the accounting process. A hundred percent of our back-office support is outsourced. It’s a fantastic, cost-effective model. Time needed to be spent ensuring each system worked seamlessly with the other, while abiding with corporate governance.”

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“When we were first engaged by the board of directors on this search there was an understanding that our mandate represented the natural evolution of a startup through scaling to maturity,” Mr. Hill noted. “A year in, does the preceding statement hold true?”

“Now that the building blocks have been established and the organization functioning in sync, we are a collaborative, motivated, focused business poised to grow,” Mr. Meszaros says. “We have successfully transitioned from founder to industry expertise led organization.”

In turn, Mr. Meszaros asked why he was chosen as the best pick for this role with Western Gulf Water Services.

“It was a tough field, all finalists represented accomplished leaders, had presided over large P&Ls, and could demonstrate a track record of growth,” Mr. Hill said. “However, I do believe it came down to behavioral fit with the other members of the respective leadership and governance teams. For us, and as a general rule, the importance of behavioral fit cannot be overstated. And that’s why we carry so many tools to assess the same.”

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Mr. Hill also explains that water use is currently a hot topic and has been since the establishment of riparian rights in the 16th century.

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“I agree water is a hot topic,” Mr. Meszaros said. “Recycling and reuse of water from industrial practices is and will be a major focus for years to come. The same principle application Western Gulf Water Services provides to the oil & gas industry can be applied cost effectively across any industry, globally. Now more than ever, produced water is viewed as a valuable resource instead of an operating cost for disposal. Measurable steps have been taken to minimize freshwater use and increase reuse through increased regulations and corporate ESG policies.”

Today, the best use case is to recycle for industrial practices, according to Mr. Meszaros. “Since produced water is far from potable water,” he says. “I like to use a small piece of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’,” water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink”. The future challenge will be to develop beneficial water reuse technology at scale to address the vast water volume produced as a byproduct of oil production.”

“Western Gulf Water Services provides turnkey water recycling and treatment services based in Midland, TX,” Mr. Meszaros said. “Today, we have the means to offer our customers a complete water recycling, turnkey project from beginning to end anywhere in North America.”

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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media