Natural Resources >> CEO Interviews >> October 23, 2000
CLAYTON W. WILLIAMS, Chairman and President of Clayton Williams Energy,
Inc., is an entrepreneur who has founded 26 companies in Texas, an
oilman, farmer, rancher, high-tech executive, financier and award-
winning teacher. He graduated from Texas A&M in 1954 with a degree in
Animal Husbandry and served two years in the US Army. Soon after his
military service, Mr. Williams used his abilities as a leader and a can-
do problem solver to become one of the state's most successful
entrepreneurs in the bedrock industries of Texas. In 1957 Mr. Williams
and his friend John May founded May and Williams, an oil and gas
company. Mr. Williams struggled with his infant business for two years
before drilling his first successful oil well in 1959. Over the next 38
years, he capitalized on his initial success, forming eight oil and gas
companies in the state. He nurtured his most successful company, Clajon,
founded in 1961, into the largest individually owned gas company in
Texas. Clajon's assets were sold in 1987 and are now owned and operated
by Aquila Gas Pipeline. In May 1993, Mr. Williams took his oil and gas
company, Clayton Williams Energy, public on the NASDAQ stock exchange,
where it is currently trading. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement
Energy Award in April 1997. Other awards include the Distinguished
Alumni Award from Texas A&M University in 1981, the Golden Plate Award
from the American Academy of Achievement in 1984, induction into the
All-American Wildcatters, Eagle Scout Award, the Jaycee Senatorial Award
in 1990, the Permian Basin Petroleum Association's Top Hand Award in
1998 and the All-American Wildcatters Outstanding Wildcatter Award in
2000. Profile
Williams Energy, Inc.?
Mr. Williams: Clayton Williams Energy is an exploration and production
company with a small amount
