Adrienne Randle Bond

Adrienne Randle Bond was drawn to oil and gas because of its technical and math underpinnings. The more she learned about the industry, the more she thrived in the environment.

Her career has now thrived through parts of five decades, in which she has plied her expertise in energy finance, securities and LLC law to the benefit of an array of corporate E&P and oilfield service companies, as well as clients in real estate, service businesses, digital start-up organizations and entrepreneurs.

Bond has closed more than $2 billion in transactions over her career. Topping the list is Wapiti Energy’s purchase of the Conroe Field from Exxon Mobil, and its sale after re-development to Denbury Resources in 2014.

She has also hired and managed legal teams, built legal departments from the ground up, and has published many scholarly articles and papers throughout her career.

“My goals have been to know my area of specialization and then take every opportunity to learn about how the other technical areas, such as engineering and accounting, affect that,” she said. “I also have tried to create and maintain strong personal relationships.”

She is known for her acutely observant—and empathetic—nature which, combined with a keen attention to detail and willingness to roll up her sleeves, has established her as an effective leader. Bond is fluent in English and Spanish, competent in French, and has studied Portuguese, Greek and Italian, allowing her to communicate with international clients and parties in their native languages.

She advises young professionals, particularly women, in the energy industry to “spend your 10,000 hours intensely on the skills you need as a professional, keep them sharp and then figure out how small and generous the Houston oil and gas community can be.”

As a woman in the male-dominated oil and gas industry, Bond strives to be kind.

"In the south, woman are always taught that you attract more with honey than vinegar," she said. "As a young woman, that wasn't always easy. I did spend some early days quite angry about how I was not treated fairly. But in the long run, the power of kindness really does work. ... I have persevered, and I think my record stands for that choice being a good one."

She has been an active member of the Houston legal community as a frequent author and lecturer on corporate and securities law issues, and has served as Adjunct Professor of Corporate Law and Securities Law at the University of Houston Law Center. She is a past president of the Women’s Finance Exchange and has been a member of the State Bar of Texas’ Corporate Law, Continuing Education, and Venture Capital Committees. Bond is also a member of the Limited Liability Company, Partnership and Unincorporated Entity Committee, the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee and the Private Equity Venture Capital Committee of the American Bar Association.

She has actively volunteered at the Neuhaus Education Center for more than 10 years, currently serves on the Advisory Board, and served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for two years. Bond said she believes in the importance of arts education for all children and serves on the Houston Grand Opera Community and Learning Committee, which oversees the production of short operas for school-age children, as well as commissioning and producing original operas focusing on telling the stories of all the communities in Houston. 

To thrive in the future, Bond advises the energy industry to “reach out more to help the business community understand the breadth of the use of petroleum products, and actively engage in the coming process and decisions about decarbonization. Our industry is the one spot with the technical knowledge necessary to the solutions that must be found.”

Check out the rest of Hart Energy's 2024 Women in Energy here.