ABOUT THUNDERBIRD SERVICES

Kirby Head, Vice President

Consulting & Production Services

Kirby has over 40 years in the oil industry. His career began in Sweetwater, Texas in 1980 with Rough Country Dozer Service building drilling locations. From 1982 to 1984, he was a truck driver for The Reeves Co., providing fluid trucking and acidizing services. In 1984, he began a 21-year career with Mobil Oil Corporation and ExxonMobil, starting as a roustabout in The Pegasus Gas Plant in Midland, TX. He progressed to operations foreman at the Salt Creek Field Unit in Kent County, Texas. He left ExxonMobil in 2004 to pursue a new adventure as a drilling and work-over consultant for Kinder Morgan CO2. Co. in Texas and Colorado. In 2005, he joined Kinder Morgan as field operations manager at the SACROC Unit in Snyder, TX. In 2011, he again made a change from KM to work-over and completion consultant working for Whiting Oil and Gas in the North Ward Estes Field, located in Ward and Winkler counties of Texas. He Joined Whiting as a well work supervisor later in 2011 and remained there until Whiting sold the field to Four Corners Petroleum, where he stayed until 2018, when he joined Thunderbird Services as manager in the Brownfield, TX location. He has been married to his wife Randy for the past 39 years and they have one son, Ethan. He enjoys fishing, hunting, and being with family in his downtime.

Lance Davis, Vice President

Rockies Completion Systems

Lance Davis has been in the downhole tool industry since 1995, starting as a shop hand, and currently is a part-owner of Thunderbird Services operating out of La Salle, CO and overseeing our Rockies division. During his career, he worked for Arrow Completions which became Weatherford Completions and BJ Tools. He worked shortly for Anadarko as a completion foreman but was offered an opportunity to move to Colorado after a couple of years and jumped at the chance to head north in 2009 to start a downhole division for BJ Services. He left BJ in late 2010 and founded Thunderbird Services and, from a two-man operation, is where we are now. He is married with one daughter of 23 years of age who lives in Abilene and two fur babies that outrank him severely. He hunts year round and is an avid snowshoer, skier, and snowboarder in the colder months then switches to hiking, fishing, and golfing once the snow melts. 

Jason Taylor, Vice President

Permian & Mid-Con Completion Systems

Jason has been in the downhole tool industry since 1993, starting out as a shop hand for Pride Downhole Tools Inc, in Midland, TX. He began running tools as a tool operator for Whitaker Oil Tools in 1995 and then moved to BJ Services in their tool division in 2002. He held various roles within BJ, from tool operator, field sales, district manager, and finally to area manager for the Permian Basin. He left BJ Services in 2010 for Globe Energy Services and became VP of completion systems for Globe. Globe became Gravity Oilfield Services in 2017. He served in the role as VP of completion systems for Gravity until June 2020. At that time, he transitioned to Thunderbird Services as vice president, Permian and Mid-Con Completion Systems. He has been married to his beautiful wife, Keri, for 23 years. They have three children, Jerek, Rylee, and Jase, and one grandson, Mase. He enjoys playing golf, traveling, and spending time with his family.

Hunter Cox, CFO

Hunter currently serves as the chief financial officer for Thunderbird Services. Hunter’s responsibilities include management and oversight of accounting, financial reporting, treasury, internal audits, and human resource functions. Prior to joining Thunderbird, Hunter served as a financial analyst at Tyler Technologies in Lubbock. Most recently, he served as a staff tax accountant and financial advisory services lead with Rod Partain, CPA, and Patrick Spear, CPA in Snyder. Outside of his duties at Thunderbird, Hunter loves to golf, mountain bike, ski, and travel. Hunter and his wife, Lauran, are also active in their local church, First Baptist Church of Snyder. They both teach a Sunday school class and volunteer-teach at FCA for Western Texas College students. Hunter graduated from Lubbock Christian University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance. 

Manuel Laredo, South Texas Completions Manager

Manuel has over 20 years of oilfield services experience. Started his career with Schlumberger STX Victoria as a lab engineer designing cement and acid systems for downhole applications. In 2002 he mad a transition to the field as a Cement service supervisor with BJ service, acquiring the first ADC Falcon cement pump truck in STX. In 2006, he made the transition to downhole tools with Vorsi and shortly after with Packers and Service tools. He maintained his role with Packers and Service tools thru expansions and name changes such as Tripoint LLC , Nabors, Superior Well Service, and eventually becoming Nine Energy Services. In 2013 he was transferred to Oklahoma City serving as an Operations Coordinator for the Mid-Con. Shortly after he took a position of District Manager with Peak Completions Mid-Con overseeing unconventional completion operations. Soon after he was transferred to Houston sales where he spent the next 7 years before joining Thunderbird Services LLC in 2021. 

He is married to his wife Ena for 16 years with a daughter and son. 

He is also a licensed Captain and owner of Reel Feather Outfitters in Port O’Connor Texas where he calls home. 

Baseball, Softball, Hunting and fishing are hobbies shared by the family! 

Jason Stearmer, Yard Manager Brownfield, TX – Completion Systems

Jason has been working in this industry since 2000. Starting at Schlumberger Wireline in Hobbs, NM as an operator, he began in the downhole tool industry as a shop hand for Watson Packer in 2002, and then he began as a tool operator in 2006 as a contract tool hand. In 2008, he went to work for Peak Completions as a tool operator, where he ran both cased hole and open hole tools. He left Peak in 2012 for Globe Energy Services and became a district manager. Globe became Gravity Oilfield Services in 2017. He continued as district manager for Gravity until June 2020 and came to Thunderbird Services at that time as yard manager. He has been married to his amazing wife, Brittany, for 22 years. They have three children, Dustin, Marki, and Maci, and one grandson, Jace. He enjoys playing golf and spending time with his family.

Jeff Osina, Business Development

Jeff has 46 years in the oil and gas industry in drilling and completions, both on land and offshore. His start was working on a drilling rig at the age of 17 for Richards Drilling in Bay City, Texas. Then with Baker Oil Tools, he grew his career from warehouseman to tool operator, field sales, assistant manager, and then corporate sales. As a tool operator, he ran completions, remedial, safety systems, TCP, and liner hangers. After 20 years with Baker Oil Tools, he worked for several service companies doing corporate sales, including Smith International, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Nine Energy, Peak Completions, Tendeka, and Gravity. At Tendeka, he was the business development director of North and South America, working to develop a company that was operating mostly in the North Sea and growing them into an unconventional market in the Western Hemisphere. He is now at Thunderbird Services as an account manager, growing the company in North America with seasonal employees that have years of experience. While doing this, he had support from 3 children, 4 grandchildren, and his wife, Kelly Jo, who enjoys some of the same hobbies like fishing, hunting, riding motorcycles, traveling and just spending time and enjoying life together.

Robert Palacios, Snyder Completions Yard Manager

Robert has been in the oil & gas industry for 25 years. He started out working floors for Westbrook Well Service, and from there went to work as shop hand then packer hand at Blankenship Pkrs. He left Blankenship for Weatherford, then went to Weatherford Fishing & Rental to take a reverse unit and run a rev unit. After 9 years at Weatherford, he ran tools at Mesquite Oil Tools and then started at Pkr Sales & Rental. Eventually he consulted for Juno and then became yard manager for 10 years, after which he started at Thunderbird as yard manager. Robert is married to Lindsey Palacios and they have three children: Aaron, Barden, and Macie. They love sports and attending games; on Saturdays it’s Hook’em, and Sunday it’s America’s team.

Austin Hamilton, Owasso Completions Yard Manager

Austin started in the industry 11 years ago as a shop hand then moved up to a tool operator. Then 7 years ago, he was given the opportunity to start a new yard in Northeast Oklahoma and has been here ever since. He’s had a good relationship with several companies, including Perdue Petro, Celero, Cimarex, and Scout, to name a few. He’s proud to have had the same boss, Jason Taylor, for his entire career in the oil and gas industry. He’s been married to his best friend, Cassie, for 21 years, and they have two great kids, Paris and Ty. They do as much together as a family as they can. Going to the lake and hanging around the BBQ pit are some of their favorites. They’re also very involved with their local church and are very thankful for the relationships they’ve made there, living in a different state than where they were raised. Austin is confident that he’s the only person in this company who’s won a karaoke contest, and he bowls on Mondays when he’s free. 

Daniel Ruiz, Account/Facilities Manager – Odessa Completions

Daniel joined Globe Energy in August of 2011 as a shop hand. Prior to Globe Energy, he was in restaurant/hospitality management. In 2014, he transitioned to tool operator, where he conducted operations on over 150 wells for Parsley Energy in the Midland basin over a 2-year period. In 2016, he became the facility foreman and assisted management in coordinating jobs for completion applications and QA/QC of packers at the shop. Globe became Gravity Oilfield Services in 2017 and he kept the same role until June 2020 during the transition to Thunderbird Services. He is currently the account/facilities manager for Odessa Completions. He has been married to his wife, Whitney, for 11 years, and they have two children, Emeri and Elli. He enjoys traveling, concerts, and spending time with his family.