Radcliffe “Cliffe” Killam II, partner at Killam Oil Co., is today’s featured Forty Under 40 honoree.

Killam helped transform his family’s multigeneration oil business into a more efficient organization driven by clear communication and common goals.

Based in Laredo, Texas, Killam Oil is a private, family owned company with core operations in South Texas. The company also has holdings in Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska and Louisiana.

“When I joined Killam Oil 10 years ago, I faced a stiff challenge: changing a multigenerational company that did not believe change was necessary,” he said. “I knew that change was going to take creative organizational thinking in an industry that generally likes to set distinct lanes and keep them that way.”

In this industry of “distinct lanes,” Killam said he began to cross-pollinate the organization, not through a restructuring, but through personal invitation of different departments to meet with each other.

“Individuals began seeing the larger picture in their individual decisions,” he said. “They became more confident in their decision-making because silos no longer limited their vision of the company’s ultimate goals.”

Before joining Killam Oil in January 2011, he had worked at Standard Chartered Bank (formerly Harrison Lovegrove) in the oil and gas investment banking group where he completed over $600 million in transactions in the U.S., Latin America and Africa. He also previously worked as an analyst at Wood Mackenzie and was a part of the team that launched and built out the U.S. upstream research and consulting services.


Click here for Cliffe Killam’s complete profile.

Take a look at all of the Forty Under 40 honorees.


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