“I am an Aggie petroleum engineer.” Those six words resonate with the faculty and student body where they are proudly displayed in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. For former student Michael Gatens ‘80 and his wife Heidi, the sentiment continues to run deep to this very day.
Together they have pledged $1 million to the petroleum engineering department in order to support the research of exceptional faculty members and encourage their continued mentorship of students. Their gift, made through the Texas A&M Foundation, will be split between the Michael and Heidi Gatens Professorship in Unconventional Resources and the S.A. Holditch ’69 Department Head Chair in Petroleum Engineering.
“The education I received at Texas A&M and the career that it enabled has been one of the major elements of my life. Drs. William Von Gonten, Stephen Holditch, John Lee and Richard Morse each made a significant impact on me, both personally and professionally,” said Gatens. “My education and the connections I established are why I am giving back—so that others can have a Texas A&M experience in petroleum engineering.”
Upon graduation, Gatens started his career at Bass Enterprises Production Company as part of an engineering development program. He returned to Texas A&M in 1982 to work alongside his old instructor at S.A. Holditch and Associates Inc. consulting firm and to receive his master’s degree in petroleum engineering.
His successful career took him further north after that, where he and fellow former student George Voneiff ’83 founded MGV Energy Inc. in Calgary, Alberta, to focus their efforts and experience on the development of unconventional gas in Canada. Their company, later acquired by Quicksilver Resources, was the inaugural first-place organization ranked by the Mays Business School’s Aggie 100.
The business duo eventually founded Unconventional Gas Resources in 2007 and merged with natural gas company Painted Pony Energy Ltd. in 2017.
Since the merger, Gatens has been traveling more with Heidi as he moves toward retirement. They have taken up long distance hiking and plan to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in the fall.
In the meantime, he is still helping others and spreading his expertise through a variety of ancillary industry and unconventional energy organizations.
“I am on the executive boards for Primavera Resources, a consulting firm run by Voneiff (Mosaic Petroleum Analytics) and Geoscience BC, a non-profit research organization, in Vancouver,” said Gatens. “We also try to make it down to College Station to visit friends and catch a football game every year.”
How to Give
The College of Engineering is one of the leading engineering programs in the United States, ranking first in undergraduate enrollment and ninth in graduate enrollment. Faculty endowments encourage and reward faculty members who embody the passion for, and commitment to, the education of engineering students. They bring years of rich experiences from the field and add tremendous value to the College of Engineering. If you are interested in supporting faculty or would like more information on how you can give, please contact Jeremy Quast, Senior Director of Development.