Michael A. Hillebrand is a principal shareholder and Chief Executive Officer of Huntley & Huntley, a board member of its institutional joint venture, Olympus Energy and a board member of its affiliate, Bow & Arrow Land Company. Mr. Hillebrand has thirty-one years of combined experience in both vertical and horizontal well drilling, completions, and operations, as well as all operating and financial aspects of oil and natural gas prospect and business development, assembly and acquisition, and marketing.
In 1998, Mr. Hillebrand joined Huntley and became a material equity partner. From 1998 through 2008, he worked closely with Keith Mangini and played a central role in raising over $150 million through Huntley’s creation and management of 26 syndicated limited partnerships and several joint venture programs that involved the drilling and/or participation in over 600 conventional oil or gas wells. Of those, over 400 wells were constructed and made operational under his direct engineering and oversight.
In 2008, Mr. Hillebrand foresaw the opportunity to lead Huntley through an industry transformation where horizontal well drilling technology replaced conventional vertical well construction. Since 2012, he has provided the business vision, direction and execution of Huntley’s strategic entrance into horizontal shale plays. He has played a key leadership role as Huntley secured over $1.1 billion of capital funding and/or commitments into several of Huntley’s affiliated companies over the last five years. One of those companies, Olympus Energy, now holds nearly 100,000 acres and in one of SW Pennsylvania’s last undeveloped core Marcellus, Utica and Upper Devonian positions.
Mr. Hillebrand started his career as a petroleum engineer for an international service company, which focused on cementing, stimulation, and coiled tubing services for well construction. He served as its Appalachian Basin district engineer. In 1990, he joined Power Gas Marketing and Transmission, a subsidiary of Sithe Energies, a large, independent, natural gas fired, electric power generation company. As its Vice President of Business Development, he oversaw the drilling and/or acquisition of over 2,000 operated and non-operated properties within the Appalachian Basin.
Mr. Hillebrand is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering. He is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), a member of the Board of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and is currently serving as the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA).