Howard Sklar earned a B.S. in Engineering and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Michigan. He also has an S.M. in Earth and Planetary Science with an emphasis in Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Sklar became active in the oil and gas industry when he joined his family’s Sklar & Phillips Oil Company in 1992.

He founded Sklar Exploration Company in 1998 to lead the continued growth of his immediate family’s oil and gas assets and other investments. Early in his career, he utilized his expertise in physics toward applications of AVO and later toward the use of NUMAR logging in non-conventional pay zone analysis. His early efforts in East Texas led to the addition of natural gas reserves and new pay zones at Oletha, North Oletha and Personville Fields in the Travis Peak and Cotton Valley sandstones.

His expertise in geophysics, log analysis and hydraulic fracture stimulation greatly contributed to Sklar Exploration’s discovery and development of natural gas reserves in Rodessa limestones and Cotton Vally sandstones at Steele Creek Field in East Texas, and the extension and development of natural gas reserves in Houston sandstones at West Arcadia Field in North Louisiana. More recently, Mr. Sklar has led his company to drill more than 150 wells over the past 10 years targeting conventional oil reserves.

These wells have produced in excess of 11 million barrels of oil to date from numerous fields, including Little Cedar Creek, Brooklyn, Kirkland and Fishpond Fields in Alabama, and Oak Hay Field in Mississippi. Mr. Sklar is an active philanthropist and generously devotes both his time and financial resources to countless charitable organizations. He is also an active athlete and spends much of his free time preparing for and competing in cycling and triathlon races.