M?ichael Windisch hails from Bowling Green, Ohio, where his father was a banker and his mother was a schoolteacher. He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a double major in accounting and finance, graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s of science in 1997 and soon joining accounting firm Price Waterhouse shortly before it merged with Coopers & Lybrand.


He began his career in the Chicago office, where the big client was Amoco Corp. and on whose audit engagement he spent about 80% of his time as a staff accountant and senior associate. He participated on the advisory side in Amoco’s merger with BP Plc.


In the firm’s Kansas City office, he again focused on the energy sector by working on the Great Plains Energy account, and transferred to Lexington, Kentucky, in connection with his wife’s career. He joined NGAS Resources Inc. in 2002 as chief financial officer, attracted to the company’s growth ambition.


At the time, NGAS had a market cap of about $5 million. Today, its market cap is more than $250 million.


A family man and proud supporter of his alma mater, reminding people that Miami was a university before Florida was a state, Windisch took some time to talk with Oil and Gas Investor about the company’s operations, his role in NGAS and innovations in the Appalachian Basin.


Investor What brought you to Lexington, and how did you end up at NGAS?
Windisch I transferred with PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Lexington office with my wife because of her career. After coming from the big offices in Chicago and Kansas City, it just wasn’t the same atmosphere and I began to look for other opportunities in the Lexington market. That’s when I found NGAS.


Investor What drew you to the company?
Windisch I think being a small company, and me being able to come in as CFO at age 27, certainly was appealing—to be able to come into a company with very aggressive growth plans and strategic advantages in the area. I got a really good feeling about the executive management team that I was going to be a part of and felt we could really achieve great results together.
I also felt I would be given an opportunity to contribute right off the bat.


Investor How is work progressing on your Leatherwood Field assets?
Windisch It’s our key field and certainly our focus currently as we engage in horizontal drilling of the Devonian shale. Essentially, we embarked on a program that had never been done before two years ago, when Equitable Resources sort of led the charge.
We have five horizontal wells in production and currently are drilling our ninth. The economics on these wells far exceed those of vertical wells, and Leatherwood is where we have focused our horizontal initiatives thus far.


Investor With all the recent focus on the Haynesville in Louisiana, how does the Appalachian Basin compare?
Windisch We’ve seen it in the past—there’s obviously a land grab in many areas. But I think the Appalachian Basin is still very attractive; particularly with applying horizontal drilling. I think it’s a wonderful place to be. We’re geographically right in the middle. It’s close to home, and we have a lot of industry expertise. The basin is going to continue to thrive, particularly with new technology.


Investor How do you see M&A for natural gas in 2008?
Windisch I think the M&A marketplace will be very active into 2009. When you look at higher oil and gas prices, it’s going to remain strong. And if you talk to any of the advisory firms, they’re extremely busy.


Investor What do you like best about your job?
Windisch I wasn’t a Texas Tech graduate, who got thrown into it from Day One. But I like the industry with its constant change, opportunity and volatility. I like being part of a growing company, as we’ve expanded both through acquisitions and organically. It’s been fun to be involved, not just from the financial side, but also from being entrenched in executive management of a company that has grown operationally.


Investor Where do you see yourself in five years?
Windisch Hopefully where I’m at, to continue to be here at a much larger NGAS and, obviously, taking on more responsibilities. It’s everyone’s goal here to continue to grow the company. If I can add valuable insight into the growth, I think we all feel the best is yet to come for NGAS and our shareholders.


Investor Who has been the biggest influence on you professionally?
Windisch Our president and chief executive Bill Daugherty, first off, for giving me the opportunity not just to join the company but to come in and have a voice, be a contributor, from the beginning. He has a very optimistic outlook on things, a very entrepreneurial vision. Being able to work beside him has been the biggest driver of my professional growth, and has caused me to look at things differently.


Investor What are some of your interests?
Windisch It starts at home. My wife and I have two children under the age of four, which obviously keeps us busy. I’m an avid golfer. I played a little bit of college golf, and somehow manage to maintain about a 1 handicap. I love sports of all kinds, especially college sports. Not being a native, I’m not a full-fledged Kentucky Wildcat fan, but everyone here is working on it!

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