Derek Detring

The company was established in September 2014, two months before the collapse in commodity pricing and the A&D market. The “timing could hardly have been worse” and the experience of starting during a down market is what Detring considers his biggest career challenge yet. Looking back, however, it taught the young company how “to work hard as a team and also how to find creative ways to assist clients in a rapidly evolving environment.”

Now, “these experiences have positioned us well for growth as the A&D market continues its recovery.”

Indeed, the A&D market is hungry. Detring said both public E&P and private-equity deals will continue, and newly solvent MLPs will continue selling as they complete their transformations post-restructuring.

On leadership: “I never want to ask anyone at the company to do something that I don’t know how to do myself!”

Career path: He began his career in 2005 as an investment banking analyst/associate at Merrill Lynch, where he spent two years in Houston, one year in Sydney and one year in Perth, Australia. From 2009 to 2013, he formed his first mid-cap A&D boutique, Integral Advisors Corp., followed by one year as a vice president within Wells Fargo’s A&D group, before founding Detring Energy Advisors in 2014.