About roi performance partners

D. J. was driven by a desire to continually improve from the time he first entered the oil and gas industry as a Petroleum Engineer for Unocal until the time he retired from Samson, last serving as the Executive Vice President, Operations, after a 30-year career. As the scope of his responsibilities grew over the years from being responsible for individual projects to leading organizations entrusted with spending in excess of a billion dollars a year, he came to realize that conducting post project reviews with an emphasis on capturing what went well to leverage strengths and evaluating people, processes, and technology to identify improvement opportunities were of benefit regardless of the type of operation, geographic location, or the program's profitability. While the need to improve projects that are not meeting economic hurdles is obvious, it is equally as important to maximize the profitability of economic projects to perpetuate the existing opportunity set as well as establish an advantage over the competition that can help fuel growth through acquisitions.

Another facet of the business D. J. views as critical to success is the ability to identify and manage risk. It is imperative that companies have systems and processes in place so operations can be conducted in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. It is equally as important that the systems and processes be appropriate for the risk being managed so as not to destroy the profitability of the business. 

Observations he has made since retiring has led him to conclude the same tools and techniques used to fuel continuous improvement efforts in the oil and gas industry and manage risk are transferrable to other industries and the process is scalable such that it can be applied to businesses regardless of their size.

Ken Davis began his energy industry career in 1984 as a Petroleum Engineer with Sun E&P Company. In 1993 he joined Samson Resources in Tulsa and continued his technical growth in Petroleum Engineering. Ken enjoyed a 20-year career at Samson where he transitioned from an individual contributor to positions of increasing responsibility until he retired in 2013, having last served on Samson’s Executive Team in the role of Sr. Vice President of Operations. 

Ken enjoyed the culture where both technical and business acumen were valued and where decisions were made with a level of analysis commensurate to the risk. This analysis required information derived from real data so that fact-based discussions could drive decision making. Under Ken’s leadership, improvements were made to data capture and reporting systems so that critical operations could be appropriately monitored and adjusted to maximize value.  

Ken was able to use his natural bent for service and an affinity for problem solving to help fuel Samson’s profitable growth. Ken led numerous Performance Improvement and Project Management initiatives, many of which involved the convening of multi-disciplined teams (Engineering, GeoScience, Land, EHS, Regulatory, Marketing, etc.) to develop and manage multimillion-dollar oil and gas development projects, often in challenging environmental and regulatory settings. Ken also facilitated the fast-track of learning curves by ensuring technology and best practices were communicated across the company via numerous collaboration forums. 

Ken also led improvements to Samson’s procurement practices. Procurement processes and systems were implemented and spending practices for Capital, Expense, and Overhead were analyzed. Where appropriate, spend was leveraged to result in the overall “Best Value” to Samson. 

Upon mutual realization that the same skills that Ken and his Samson colleague, D. J. Ponville, employed to contribute to Samson’s success could be utilized not only in the energy industry but also at small businesses and non-profit organizations, Ken and D. J. partnered to form ROI Performance Partners in 20