Matt Lowther

Vice President, Operations, Basin Energy Group, Clarksburg, W.Va.

On industry: “I’m never bored . . . One day doesn’t ever look like any other day. Sometimes that’s a challenge, but it keeps me on my toes and keeps me focused.”

Career path: He joined ProActive Services from management outside of the industry, managing operations for 25 employees. Now, he oversees 100 employees at ProActive and another subsidiary, Starett Energy Services.

Earn it: Lowther used past experiences and job history to transition to the industry and gained oil and gas field knowledge from the guidance of ProActive’s then-owner, Terry Wyckoff, when he joined in 2012. He is still learning under Basin Energy CEO Bill Johnson’s leadership.

“Nothing is going to fall into your lap. You have to put yourself in the position to achieve your goals, whether it’s more training, more schooling. You have to go get it. Nothing just comes to you. I got an opportunity to apply at ProActive Services. They needed a manager, and their current employees had great industry knowledge but didn’t have any management experience. I think, honestly, I might have been a little different than some of the other candidates because I didn’t have a lot of background in [the industry].”

Quotable: “Every day, everything you do, you’re building your life resume. You have to continuously make good professional and personal decisions. In today’s world, it seems that everything is public.”

Polished: “When I was young, I can remember helping my father work around the house and, it didn’t matter what we were working on, it seemed to take all day long. He instilled in me that even something as simple as a fresh-cut lawn and a well-kept house tells a lot about the person living there. That has stuck with me through adulthood, and I’ve used that advice to help achieve both my personal and professional goals. It’s like the old adage of ‘you only get one chance at a first impression.’ Even if they don’t know me personally, I want our employees’ professionalism and work ethic to be the first impression that the industry sees of me and of our company.”