GATE Energy Continues Servant Leadership Culture with Employee Ownership

HOUSTON, June 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- GATE Energy, along with its affiliates BlueFin and Viking Engineering, is pleased to announce that they are now 100% employee owned. GATE Energy was sold to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and was advised by Lazear Capital Partners in the transaction.

Founded in 2000, GATE Energy has become one of the most trusted consulting firms within the oil and gas and energy industry. Besides being a Safety at Seas winner, a Hot Firm and Best Firm to Work For winner, GATE continues to be dedicated to servant leadership with the aim of delivering projects safely for their clients.

Lee Jordan, CEO of GATE Energy, said, "For over 15 years, Grant Gibson, Founder of GATE Energy, strived for employee ownership that would allow GATE employees to realize the outcomes of hard work and to build value in GATE's future. The ESOP achieves that goal. Our transition to becoming a 100% employee-owned ESOP is a key milestone in the shared history of GATE Energy. The ESOP directly aligns our organizational structure with the values and culture of the business and provides a means for our employees to directly benefit from the success of the business as a reward for their unremitting focus on quality, safety and client satisfaction. Employees now have a direct stake in GATE Energy's future, greater job security, and better outcomes in terms of employee benefits and retirement. It is an extremely proud day for all of us that are fortunate to serve them."

Chairman and Founder, Grant Gibson, provided further context for the decision to go with the ESOP, "The value created for our shareholders, employees and clients will be amazing.  From a client's perspective, the value of working with an ESOP company entails having staff with a true sense of ownership, continuity of top talent, continuous improvement, commitment to safety, collaboration, and quality delivery.  All employees have a stake in the future growth of the company, staying true to our values, and building dedicated clients. The ESOP is a powerful tool to retain top talent and continue to grow through the energy transition. I am excited to see the new phase play out."

About Lazear Capital Partners

Lazear Capital Partners is a leading middle-market investment bank helping owners and companies with ESOP advisory, feasibility, structure and formation. The firm has offices in Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Fresno and Phoenix.

About GATE Energy, BlueFin & Viking Engineering

GATE Energy, is a 100% employee-owned ESOP and family of companies that provide scalable, fit-for-purpose services for the energy sector including engineering, commissioning and specialty field services.

BlueFin, a 100% Employee-Owned, GATE Energy ESOP, is a Louisiana-based company with field offices throughout the U.S., specializing in Pipeline, Process and Completion Services, specifically focused on technology to solve unique challenges within the energy community.

Viking Engineering, a 100% Employee-Owned, GATE Energy ESOP, is a leading engineering company specializing in asset design and integrity, critical well engineering, operational readiness, risk assessment, production optimization and flow assurance, failure investigation and lab services and testing. Viking Engineering's history began in 2001 with critical well engineering and has grown since then to offer services to include the upstream, midstream, downstream and new energy markets. Viking is a strong believer in applying lessons learned from their failure analysis team back to the design phases and into field practices via their quality assurance and engineering teams.

For more information on GATE Energy, visit www.gate.energy

SOURCE GATE, Inc.