George Yates is the president and CEO of HEYCO Energy Group, Inc., an exploration and investment company, with offices in New Mexico, Texas, Spain, and the UK.

Yates has served as chairman of several industry organizations, including the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Natural Gas Council, Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Business Industry Political Action Committee, and the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico. Yates previously sat on the board of Matador Resources Company, a public energy company.

He won the oil and gas industry’s prestigious Chief Roughneck Award in 2004, was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Hall of Fame in 2009, and into the New Mexico Military Institute’s Hall of Fame in 2015.

Yates holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management executive education programme.