Leadership
Chief Executive Officer Chris Wright
Chris Wright serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Liberty Oilfield Services. Additionally, Chris founded and serves as Executive Chairman of Liberty Resources, a Bakken-focused E&P company and Liberty Midstream Solutions. He has had a lifelong passion for energy and its role in human life. He has spoken on energy to the UK House of Lords, the States Attorneys General, Federal and State Judges, debated the merits of the shale revolution on TV and given over 100 talks.
Chris completed an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at MIT and graduate work in Electrical Engineering at both UC Berkeley and MIT. Chris founded Pinnacle Technologies and from 1992 - 2006 years served as CEO. Pinnacle created the hydraulic fracture mapping industry. Pinnacle's innovations in fracturing practices helped launch commercial shale gas production in the late 1990’s.
Chris was Chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, prior to its sale to Range Resources in 2006. Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors for Liberty Resources, Urban Solutions Group, US Ceramics and the Federal Reserve Bank, Denver Branch.
Chris has consulted and taught courses on all six inhabited continents and authored / co-authored over 60 technical papers and articles. He has received numerous industry awards and several U.S. patents. Chris also worked on fusion energy, solar energy, and geothermal energy. Chris grew up in Colorado and is a passionate skier, cyclist, climber, and outdoor enthusiast. He serves on the board of numerous nonprofits including PERC, ACE Colorado, ACE Montana, PRI, and the YCCF.
Chief Financial Officer Michael Stock
Michael serves as CFO after joining Liberty in April 2012. He brings over 25 years of financial and systems implementation experience to the company. Throughout his career, he has been involved in all levels of finance including global financial management, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and risk management.
Prior to joining Liberty, Michael was CFO for TAS Energy Inc., an innovative Cleantech Energy company in Houston, TX from 2009 to 2012. At TAS Michael was a key part of the raising of Equity from leading investment groups including Kleiner Perkins, Element Partners, NGP and Credit Suisse. Prior to joining TAS, Michael was the CFO for Pinnacle Technologies Inc. a leading Oil Field Service company, from 1997 to 2009.
During his tenure, Pinnacle Technologies grew at a compound annual growth rate of greater than 30%, from a $2.5M startup to a dominant technology provider with 70% market share in the hydraulic fracture mapping and reservoir monitoring business. He was a key player in the sale of Pinnacle Technologies to Carbo Ceramics in 2002 and then managed the sale of the fracture mapping and reservoir monitoring business to Halliburton before joining TAS. Michael also worked for NeXT Software Inc in Silicon Valley leading up to their prospective IPO and final sale to Apple Computer.
Michael grew up in New Zealand but currently lives in Denver, CO. He has worked across three continents in his career and has an abiding passion for travel and the arts.
President Ron Gusek
Ron Gusek has been the President of Liberty Oilfield Services since November 2016. Before assuming the role of President, Mr. Gusek was the VP of Technology and Development from 2014 to 2016. Over the past 20 years, Ron has garnered extensive oil and gas experience in North America and extended his knowledge of operations through travels to Asia, Russia, and the Middle East
Within Liberty, Ron’s focus includes new technology and innovation, service quality, efficiency, and optimization.
Ron holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta.
Ron has also held previous roles at Sanjel Corporation, Zodiac Exploration, Pinnacle Technologies, and BJ Services, with a primary focus on hydraulic fracturing in unconventional reservoirs.
Ron is a published SPE author and presenter. His dedication to the petroleum engineering community and interest in shared industry knowledge is evident in his numerous volunteer capacities, which include the Denver Petroleum Club, COGA, and the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation Executive Committee and Energy Coalition.
Outside of work, Ron is a husband, father, runner, cyclist, hiker, skier, and occasional adventure racer.
Chief Accounting Officer Ryan Gosney
Ryan Gosney has served as the Chief Accounting Officer of Liberty Oilfield Services since March 2017. Over the course of his career, Ryan has gained extensive experience leading auditing and accounting teams in both private and public settings in the oil and gas industry through a diverse array of transactions and growth.
Ryan has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Christian University.
Ryan began his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen, LLP in September 1995 where he served in increasing roles of responsibility up to Audit Manager until June 2002. From October 2002 to October 2005, Ryan served as Controller for Patina Oil & Gas Corporation and as Controller of Delta Petroleum Corporation from October 2005 until he departed in 2012. Ryan served as Chief Financial Officer for Dorado E&P Partners, LLC, an oil and gas exploration and production company, from January 2012 to January 2016. Prior to joining Liberty, between July 2016 and February 2017, Ryan served as the Chief Accounting Officer of Vantage Energy, an oil and gas exploration and production company.
Ryan enjoys the array of outdoor activities that Colorado has to offer including hiking, off-road exploring, running, biking and skiing.
Vice President of Operations Jim Brady
Jim Brady has been the VP of Operations at Liberty Oilfield Services since its founding in 2011. His knowledge about people, equipment, vendors, and customers during his previous 21 years in the Oil and Gas Industry lead him to his current position at Liberty. The most important part of his job is people and creating a culture that promotes service quality, safety and the drive to be the Best Damn Frac Company Period.
Jim began his career in oil and gas with Halliburton in 1990 working in the bulk plant, where he pushed a broom, mixed cement, drove bulk cement trucks and hauled sand to frac locations. Eventually he was transferred to the Stimulation department and began learning the various pieces of equipment, rig up/rig downs, the different fluid systems, safety factors and how to work as a team. During Jim’s 17 years at Halliburton he held various positions. He ended his career as the Service Manager who was responsible for Service Quality, Safety and Personnel for the Brighton Stimulation Department.
In 2007, Superior Well Services recruited Jim to be Operations Manager in the Brighton District in Colorado. Within months the DJ based frac crew became the leader in the Rockies and eventually the entire company. He held this position for two years and was then promoted to the Rockies Region Manager. As Region Manger, Jim was responsible for districts in Farmington, NM, Vernal, UT, Rock Springs, WY, Williston, ND, and Brighton, CO. When Jim left in May 2011 to start Liberty, Superior had four frac cews and seven cement crews actively operating in the region.
Jim lives in Colorado with his wife and three daughters. He enjoys golfing, riding his motorcycle, mowing his lawn, and just having fun.
Vice President & General Counsel Sean Elliott
Since March 2017, Sean Elliott has served as Vice President and General Counsel at Liberty Oilfield Services. Sean has over 20 years of legal experience and has spent much of his career in leadership roles within publicly-traded companies.
Sean Elliott studied at Austin College where he earned a bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in Economics and Business Administration.
He then moved on to earn his juris doctorate degree (with honors) from The University of Texas at Austin.
Prior to joining Liberty, Sean worked as Assistant General Counsel at USAA Real Estate Company, which is part of the USAA organization that serves the U.S. military and their families. Sean practiced law in the San Antonio office of Haynes and Boone, LLP from 2015 until joining USAA in 2016. Before moving to San Antonio, Sean served as Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for CARBO Ceramics Inc., an oilfield services company in Houston, from 2007 until 2015. Sean also served as legal counsel to Aviall, Inc., a Dallas-based international aviation company, from 2004 to 2007, where he last held the positions of Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary.
Sean is a Texas native. He enjoys tennis, golf, mountain and water sports, and spending time with his children.
Director of Business Development Mike Machovoe
Mike Machovoe has served at the Director of Business Development for Liberty since January 2021. Mike began his career with Liberty in July 2013 as an account representative, reporting to Tom Riebel. Mike has served several roles in the Liberty business development organization since 2013 including Account Manager, Area Sales Manager for the Rocky Mountain Region and Director of Sales – U.S. Currently, Mike manages 55 employees in the greater business development organization.
Mike started his oilfield career in 2002 working as a field specialist for Pinnacle Technologies. Although based in Bakersfield, California, Mike traveled all over the U.S. and Canada working on tiltmeter fracture mapping, microseismic and reservoir monitoring projects. After his time in the field, Mike moved to a diagnostics engineering role, conducting real-time fracture analysis on CSS (Cyclic Steam Stimulation), SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) and CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) operations in the U.S. and Canada. In 2008, Halliburton purchased the fracture diagnostics arm of Pinnacle Technologies and Mike worked there for 5 years as Team Lead for the Real-Time Reservoir Diagnostics Group.
Mike received an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Mike is based in Denver, but remains a passionate Buffalo Bills and Sabres fan, as well as the Colorado Avalanche. Mike, his wife Renee, and son, Declan enjoy all outdoor Colorado activities. Mike also enjoys craft beer and live music.
Vice President of Engineering Leen Weijers
Dr. Leen Weijers serves as the Vice President of Engineering at Liberty Oilfield Services. He has worked at Liberty since its founding in 2011, originally serving as its Business Manager. Leen’s role at Liberty focuses on two main aspects. One, delivering improved well economics to customers through optimized frac designs, and two, on customer and internal data sharing and reporting to improve business efficiencies.
Leen worked at Pinnacle Technologies from 1995 to 2011, where he oversaw development of the industry’s most widely used fracture growth simulator, FracproPT. He was Pinnacle’s Rocky Mountain Regional Manager from 2007 - 2011, where he helped rebuild its Rocky Mountain operations.
Leen has authored dozens of industry courses and publications. He also played a key role in the calibration of fracture growth models with various fracture diagnostics such as tiltmeter and micro-seismic fracture mapping technologies.
Leen Weijers completed his doctoral research at the Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands by conducting fracture growth model experiments to investigate the interaction of hydraulic fracture systems with horizontal and deviated wells. Before that, Leen completed a Master’s degree in Geophysics, also from Delft University of Technology.
Leen and his wife Margreet have four kids. Leen loves to spend his leisure time with his family in Colorado’s beautiful outdoors on skis, skates or cycling tires or on the dance floor.