Opinion: Honor the Past, Respect the Legacy, Create the Future

[Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the July 2022 issue of Oil and Gas Investor magazine.]

The privilege of writing this column is one I share with only two people. Both are gone too soon and both of whom pushed Oil and Gas Investor magazine across boundaries, beyond challenges and into the future with their own brands of brilliance, experience and swagger.

Leslie Haines, the formidable founding editor of Oil and Gas Investor, shepherded the publication for more than 30 years and illuminated the impacts of war, global economics and technology on the industry. She was there for the advent of hydraulic fracturing. Her successor, the red-headed firecracker Steve Toon, took the helm of the magazine in 2016 and steered the magazine through the shale revolution’s early rumblings of shareholder unrest, industry accountability demands and, of course, an upending pandemic.

Still, among the 50 years of Hart Energy’s energy news coverage, the past 12 months will stand out. And this is where I come in.