Byron Smith:  

The Past, The Present, The Future The Past: Some may not remember me at Permian. I was born in Odessa but did not grow up there. My father was transferred frequently and I ended up moving nine times during the first fifteen years of my life. I transferred to Permian High from Monahans High in 1969. I played on the Permian High golf team. After graduating in 1971 from Permian, I attended college at Odessa Jr. College and then received my B.S. in Microbiology at Texas Tech University in 1976. I moved to Midland and started working for a pharmaceutical company as a sales representative. After tired from dealing with doctors for a year, I felt that I should be in the oilfield where I had worked in the summers while in college. That marked the beginning of my career with the service companies specializing in hydraulic fracturing, a process used to increase the production in oil and gas wells. My first position and training was in El Dorado, Texas. I was then promoted to Technical Sales and was transferred to Midland in 1978, and in 1979 I transferred to Houston. In 1992, I left the service company and started a career working for Santrol which supplies the service companies with the special sands that are used in hydraulic fracturing. From 1992 to 1999 I was the Director of Marketing and Sales Latin America, where I traveled throughout Mexico and South America promoting and technically supporting our products. During this time I was spending up to six months per year in Venezuela, a great life experience, but a lot of lost time with my young family. From 1999-2001, I transferred to a sister company in League City, Texas where I was tasked with running the...Expand for more