Norm Szydlowski’s story is a tale of resilience, redemption and rebuilding. Now, following an exhausting career of leading industry majors, helping rebuild a bankrupted company and aiding to rebuild war-torn Iraq’s oil infrastructure, Szydlowski is reaching the end of his 32-year professional ride.
He plans to step down from SemGroup Corp. and Rose Rock Midstream LP, where he serves as chief executive, after the board of directors finds a replacement for the roles. And when he strolls out of SemGroup’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, headquarters for the final time, he says he’ll bide his newfound free time learning how to play golf. With a laugh, he says he hopes his par is as remarkable as his tenure at SemGroup. It’s a lofty goal, given his strong track record there and elsewhere.
Szydlowski’s retirement plans were revealed in August. During his four years with SemGroup, and his two years with Rose Rock Midstream, Szydlowski’s accomplishments were as numerous as they were impressive.
“Among many other notable accomplishments, [Szydlowski] helped SemGroup establish a solid financial foundation following the restructuring of SemGroup LP, and he cultivated the broad and talented management team that led the company through its successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010,” John F. Chlebowski Jr., SemGroup’s board chairman, said in announcing Szydlowski’s retirement. “He also played a key role in the launch of Rose Rock Midstream as a publicly traded master limited partnership in 2011, and more recently, in the initiation of a quarterly dividend to return capital to SemGroup stockholders.”
Mississippi Lime assets
Under Szydlowski’s leadership, both SemGroup and Rose Rock grew. SemGroup acquired Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Mississippi Lime gas gathering and processing assets, for example, while Rose Rock recently announced its plans to acquire transportation assets from Barcas Field Services. This was an astonishing accomplishment, given the state SemGroup was in when Szydlowski joined it back in 2009.
The U.S. economic collapse hit SemGroup LP hard. It filed for Chapter 11 in the summer of 2008. But, yet, its story was far from over. The following year, the company rose from the ashes to become SemGroup Corp., led by Szydlowski. It went public in 2010 and formed spin-off company Rose Rock Midstream in 2011.
“I looked at (SemGroup Corp.) in many ways, as did the others, as almost a start-up venture,” Szydlowski, 62, tells Midstream Business. “We—not just me, but those on the board at that time—felt like this was a wonderful opportunity to participate in not just a phoenix story, but a story of a true new beginning.
“When I looked in, I saw some good assets run by people who really were not a party to any of the bankruptcy activity. It looked like a great opportunity.”
Coincidentally, some of SemGroup’s assets had been owned by Chevron in the past. This gave Szydlowski a familiarity with the people and assets. He says helping restructure SemGroup was unexpected but also rewarding at the same time.
Szydlowski entered the energy industry shortly after earning an MBA at Indiana University. (He earlier obtained a BS in mechanical engineering from what’s now known as Kettering University.) His 32 years of industry experience began at Chevron, where he joined the marketing operations department in 1981, and held a variety of positions there in the ensuing two decades. He has served as the company’s general manager of health, environmental and safety and later led Chevron’s North American pipeline system. In 1999, he became Chevron’s general manager of its Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery. As well, Szydlowski has served as a director of NGL Energy Holdings LLC.
Adventures in Iraq
Szydlowski also served as senior consultant to the Iraqi Oil Ministry from 2004 to 2005 at the behest of the Pentagon, which recruited him in late 2003 for the role.
He was flown into Baghdad following the overthrow of dictator and former president Saddam Hussein. The interim government, then known as the Coalition Provisional Authority, had called on a series of oil executives to lead the effort to restore and re-engage the country’s oil sector.
“As you can imagine, for the 30 years Saddam was in power, effectively the whole industry had dropped out of what was going on in the world,” Szydlowski recalls. “They hadn’t participated in any of the advancements. The job was to get things back on its feet.”
Szydlowski says his time in Iraq was both rewarding and a challenge. Frustrations also emerged, no thanks to the country’s lack of security. The team would build something, only to face the prospect of it being disabled or blown up. Pipelines were a favorite target, he recalls. The country was also decades behind technology-wise.
“It was like walking into 1970 again,” Szydlowski says. “All the systems were of that vintage. Nobody had computers. Nobody had laptops. They didn’t have cell phones. Can you imagine? It was a real challenge.”
Despite such obstacles, Szydlowski says he was honored to have participated in the rebuilding efforts.
“I am so thankful,” he says. “As we look back on Iraq, fundamentally the opportunities we had and things we did do to help them get re-engaged with the world community on systems and the technology, was a really rewarding experience. We feel like it was well worth the effort, and that we did some good.”
As he prepares for retirement, Szydlowski says he’s satisfied with all of the accomplishments and opportunities he’s been blessed with. He adds that he’s confident SemGroup and Rose Rock will find a suitable successor.
“I feel that I’ve been fortunate in more ways than I can count,” he says. “I think the job is going to find a broad appeal. The company has done very well, but also it has a good growth opportunity set. The company has a great offering and great sizzle to interesting people who may like to be a part of it.”
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