Skylar O’Neal: Driven by innovation and pragmatism

“Everything is an opportunity to learn,” says second-gen investor and family office principal Skylar O’Neal. “I’ve found that where I learned the most is when I said yes to a situation where I had no idea what I was getting myself into!”

A born optimist with an ardent passion to learn and seek out new opportunities in life and business, the Texas-born daughter of renowned petroleum geologist Larry Brogdon has, through diligence and hard work, transformed from a self-described place of vulnerability when starting out (“I had to be willing to ask the ‘dumb questions’ to experienced people, but I wasn’t going to find out the answers unless I asked!”) to a position of considerable influence as Principal of her single family office, Summit Cove Investments. 

Here, Skylar O’Neal talks about the evolution of the family business and her place in it, how her father’s four decades of oil and gas production experience is helping to inspire the next generation and her belief that oil & gas will continue to be a vital energy source into the future… 

I grew up thinking that my dad hunted prehistoric sharks teeth... he would distract us by getting us to dig for fossils.

Can you talk about the origins of Summit Cove Investments?
We’re a relatively new family office and the way we operate is based on my dad’s background as a geologist. He was never with a large petroleum company, so as an independent he had to be really knowledgeable on all aspects of the oil and gas industry.

He didn’t have the luxury of being siloed and able to focus solely on the geological aspects of things. As the business grew, having that independent background meant he knew how to be more flexible and nimble — and, when he had really strong convictions about a specific play, that independence allowed him to follow his beliefs. 

Of course, it didn’t hurt that he happened to be in the exact location where the shale revolution started. He was one of the early participants in the Barnett Shale [a geological formation located in the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin of great economic significance to the state of Texas]. There was a technological revolution happening at that time where they went from vertical drilling to the introduction of horizontal drilling, and he was able to work alongside some of the early pioneers of that technique. This is where his interest in energy focused technologies deepened and the impetus for a lot of his future areas of investing came from. 

As the mid to late-2000s hit, energy prices were becoming too high and that was our strategic moment to make an exit. We pivoted out of the exploration and production side and ended up investing in software startups in the energy sector, and that’s where we spend much of our efforts today.

Was it always your intention to join the family business?
I didn’t know it was an option to be frank. There are many families in which the business is not talked about. And while I don’t necessarily agree that that’s the right way to handle it, that’s the way it was done in ours.

I grew up thinking that my dad hunted prehistoric sharks teeth, because he would take us out to geological outcrops that had been deposited underwater millions of years ago and distract us by getting us to dig for fossils.

I graduated during the 2008 financial crisis and had a wonderful internship set up in the fashion industry in New York, but then got the call that they were slashing all the programmes and they didn’t have an available path for me. So, I ended up working for a hotel group at their corporate office doing sales, marketing and then strategic partnerships. But there were some leadership changes and they wanted me to move onto property, which was not a path that I was excited about taking.

My dad, while he was thinking about who would be able to take over the family business if he ever retired, said “Why don’t you just come back home for a year and try out this whole investment thing that we’ve got going on?” That was about eight and a half years ago and it’s worked out okay so far!

Now as a principal of [the family investment firm] Summit Cove Investments, I’m in charge of portfolio diversification outside of our concentration in oil and gas opportunities.

The energy transition is absolutely happening, but we believe that it’s going to take a lot longer than others are saying it’s going to take.

You achieved your BA at Texas Christian University (TCU) and now you’re working closely with the school via the TCU Energy Institute, now renamed the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute, which was established in part by your father over a decade ago. What was the reason for pushing in this direction?
The original aim of the institute was to educate undergraduate students on the opportunities available in the energy industry. TCU, at the time was centrally located in the heart of the Barnett Shale, and we were surrounded by energy companies and opportunities. 

At TCU, we have students from all over the world and they did not have a proper understanding of the energy space and how to take advantage of the opportunities that were literally in our backyard.

There are all kinds of different specialties within the sector that people don’t always think about — there’s accounting, finance, marketing, HR etc and there’s also the political aspects, plus land and legal. That’s in addition to the physical sciences of geology, chemistry and engineering. 

So, the purpose of the institute is to serve our students by thinking holistically versus singularly. It’s a really dynamic sector and the Energy Institute gives them a deeper understanding of the space. 

Your family business grew originally around shale-oriented gas production. How are you preparing for the mooted global transition to sustainable energy?
The energy transition is absolutely happening, but we believe that it’s going to take a lot longer than others are saying it’s going to take.

In our opinion, we’re going to be reliant upon petroleum products for decades. If you think about the humanitarian aspect of it, we’ve got around eight billion people in the world and their appetite for energy is substantial. If you stop using petroleum or carbon-based products, that would create some really large worldwide issues.

However, we are believers in innovation and we support sensible economic transition opportunities, but we’re also pragmatic and understand the realities of what’s happening today, tomorrow and for a good chunk of time into the future.

Climate change is happening 100%, there’s no doubt about it. Should we be doing work to make the world better than we left it? Absolutely. But are the climate goals that are being set by current administrations and governments going to drastically halt climate change? No, I don’t think so.

Campden Wealth’s 2022 Global Family Office Report also found that portfolios in sustainable investing among global family offices are growing year-on-year from 21% in 2020 to a projected 38% in 2027. This trend is thought to have been driven by Next Gens, do you feel they’re the primary drivers of this requirement to adopt widespread energy transition? 
I think every generation makes changes to some degree. Currently, we have a very passionate generation and the one coming up right behind us brings with them a real feeling of urgency. I think that is a good place to start. 

I think that our generation is absolutely going to be part of the solution, whether or not you’re going to see such a shift anytime soon remains to be seen. It’s genuinely hard for me to fathom what things are going be like in 20 years, but I think there are some really basic questions that are being addressed right now. 

Energy security is a huge issue for large populations around the world today and I think there are some really smart people in our generation that are doing things to make life better for people in those situations. Humans are not inherently static, we’re always moving forward, innovating, adapting and we are going to find answers.