Flipping the Barrel: “Our Greatest Asset? Our People” with Ron Gusek, President of Liberty Oilfield Services.

Thank you Flipping The Barrel Podcast for sharing Ron Gusek’s story! Tune in below to hear about Ron’s beginnings, management philosophies, and more on the Liberty story.

Listen to the whole episode here.

Ron grew up with a love for all things Mechanical. His father was a huge influence in his life, growing up outside of Edmonton, Canada spending most of his time either – on the farm or working with his dad, in their shop. In the early 80’s Ron experienced the impacts of a downturn had on his community. People losing their job, mortgage rates at an all time high, interest rates were through the roof and Alberta was not in a good place. Ron was not much of a risk taker and seeing the impacts of the oil industry deterred him from wanting to pursue a career in an unstable environment .  His first job out of college was working in the HVAC industry as an Engineer.

It didn’t take long for Ron to have a change of heart and find himself accepting a job in the oil industry. With a 50% increase in pay, he couldn’t say no. He started his career in fracking. When he started in  the late 1990’s fracking looked very different. Imagine this… Being home before dark, putting away one stage a day and calling that a success.

Through Ron’s career he helped develop and grow the technology space in Fracking. In June 2003 he started his job at Pinnacle. He was working as a sales person, naturally introverted, this was an uncomfortable role for him. Ron talks about his experience working for Pinnacle and the lessons he learned when Halliburton bought them in 2008, this was a life changing moment for Ron. He talks about his regrets during this time.

After leaving Pinnacle due to the buyout, he began embarking on new roles. Ron moved through companies during the next 8 years, trying to find the small company feel we had at Pinnacle. Each company he worked for was a learning experience that built him into the leader he is today. He talks about each of these experiences and what it taught him.

In 2011 his world turned. The exact company he had been searching for appeared, Liberty. He found himself back at home with the same guys he started with at Pinnacle. Ron used his experiences from each company he worked for to build the culture of Liberty with Chris Wright. There were a few key differences they wanted for Liberty and their employees. Ron talks about how they built the reputation and culture they have today. This is one of the most important parts of Ron’s story.

Have you seen Liberty’s marketing? With 20,000 followers on LinkedIn and Tech Tuesday videos, Liberty is doing something right. Ron talks about the people behind their Marketing efforts and how it’s not to only promote Liberty, it’s to show what the oil industry does for each one of us every day to change the way society perceives the industry.