Trevor Reuben

Career path: He joined Newfield after working in energy investment banking at J.P. Morgan, having first joined the bank as an analyst in 2004. Prior to that, he worked as an operations supervisor for BP Plc, having first joined the company’s management development program in the summer of 2001.

“I was promoted to vice president of corporate development [at Newfield] much sooner than I expected. I credit this achievement to strong support from my team, excellent mentorship and fortunate timing.” Timing turned out to be everything when it came to Reuben exercising leadership to execute Newfield’s $2-billion balance sheet recapitalization in 2015, because “within less than a year of joining Newfield, oil prices dropped in half. … The equity and debt financings we completed were critical to enhancing [the company’s] ability to continue driving value creation thru-cycle.”

Discovery: “I think that I have brought a different perspective and approach to evaluating strategic issues at Newfield, which reflects my previous experience as an investment banker. Specifically, my team and I focus a lot on how our ideas resonate with the audience—management, board of directors, external parties, etc.—asking what the key questions are that we want to answer, how to best illustrate our analysis and most effectively articulate recommendations in a way that balances details with the bigger picture.”

Mentors: At Newfield, he considers chairman and CEO Lee Boothby and executive vice president and CFO Larry Massaro to be mentors. “Each has given numerous hours of their time to share valuable lessons from their careers and personal life. In turn, I have gained priceless insights that I will use for the rest of my life.”