Laredo Petroleum Selects W Energy Software’s Upstream ERP to Advance Digital Transformation and Best-in-Class Operations

As W Energy’s Senior Vice President of Revenue, Trey Simonton leads all revenue-generating functions, including sales and client renewals.  Simonton is a seasoned SaaS go-to-market leader with a proven track record of global results over the last 20 years, building high-performing and mission-driven teams.  He is passionate about the results great teams can achieve when relentlessly focused on customer outcomes. 

Prior to joining W Energy, Trey was the Chief Revenue Officer at MadCap Software and held sales leadership positions at insightsoftware, Accruent and Bazaarvoice.  Trey has a BBA from Baylor University with Minors in both International Marketing and Finance.   Trey is also a published author and featured speaker at industry conferences.

Sean joined True Wind in 2018 and is a Director of Envoy Global, Sysnet Global Solutions, and W Energy Software. Prior to joining True Wind, Sean spent over a decade at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) where he led and managed growth equity investments and buyouts within technology. Sean was involved with various investments across the technology sector including Actifio, Cradlepoint, Datto, ExtraHop, Fuze, GoDaddy, Twilio, XRS and several others. Prior to joining TCV, Sean was with Deutsche Bank in the Technology Mergers & Acquisitions group.

Sean holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles.

Rachel Collins joins WES with over 25 years of organizational transformation experience. Prior to WES, Rachel was the General Manager of Insite360, the software and analytics division of Gilbarco Veeder-Root (a NYSE:VNT operating company). Prior to Insite360, Rachel served as General Manager and SVP at Aurea Software (ESW Capital/Trilogy), where she directly managed several acquisitions including ista NA, Lyris, MessageOne, AlertFind, Artemis, Jive software operations, and Jive’s FedRAMP program. Rachel is responsible for over a billion annual recurring revenue since 2013. She also founded a boutique consulting firm focused on java development and middleware integration serving the energy, financial services, and healthcare sectors.

Rachel graduated with Cum Laude honors from LSU, with a B.S. in Information Systems and Decision Sciences. In 2019, Rachel graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors from Colorado State University Global, with a Master’s Degree in Finance.

Michael earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Kentucky and holds an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. He began his career at LaSalle Bank in Chicago, later transitioning to an asset management firm, leading efforts to optimize internal processes and manage data flow across the organization. Michael has over 20 years of experience in FP&A, accounting, information systems management and capital markets.

Andy has 30 years of oil and gas experience which have been focused on technology leadership roles. He has extensive experience in commercial software delivery, product management, and product life cycle. Mr. James joined W Energy Software in January 2023, prior to which he served 10 years at IHS Markit where he led the global software development organization for the upstream oil and gas business. Key contributions include leading the geoscience software organization, migration of key platform technologies to the cloud, and Agile development transformation. Mr. James also spent 20 years in global roles in London, Holland, and Houston with Halliburton, including stints with KBR, Halliburton Integrated Solutions, and finally Landmark Graphics.

Vipul Bansal brings in 20+ years of technology experience helping organizations build scalable solutions. In his role as VP of Engineering, Vipul leads the platform engineering teams delivering robust ERP solutions and plays a critical role in helping W Energy remain at the forefront of innovation. Prior to joining W Energy, Vipul was Head of Engineering for Seven Lakes Technologies building truly cloud-native SaaS solution for oilfield production, field operations and production accounting. Vipul received his Master’s from Wayne State University and holds a Bachelor’s in engineering from Sardar Patel University.

Whitney joined W Energy Software in 2013 and currently serves as the Vice President of Human Resources. She is passionate about building strategies and initiatives focused on solving business and people challenges. Whitney earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Rogers State University and a Graduate Certificate in Human Resource Management from Oklahoma State University.

David has over 20 years of experience in Upstream Oil & Gas spanning the IT strategy, design and implementation disciplines as well as extensive experience in data warehousing, business analytics, revenue accounting, production accounting and land applications. He earned a BA in Business Administration and Management and his MBA from Baylor University.

Frank joined the W Energy team in 2020 and currently serves as Associate Vice President of Sales. He has 14 years of experience in various sales roles and enjoys helping clients across the oil and gas industry achieve strategic transformation. Frank earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Baylor University.

Jonathan joined W Energy Software in 2022, bringing more than 10 years of experience in corporate finance and financial services. Prior to joining W, he served on the FP&A team at Magellan Midstream Partners, where he focused on business optimization and cost containment. As Chief of Staff, Jonathan’s current responsibilities include strategic planning, project management, and decision support within W’s executive team. He graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors from Northeastern State University, earning a B.B.A. in Finance. Furthermore, he holds an MBA from Louisiana State University Shreveport and a master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary.

Aubree joined W Energy Software in 2018 and currently serves as the Executive Administrator for the Leadership Team. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelors in Sociology and comes with 10 years of administrative experience.

Mike brings more than 25 years of IT industry experience where he was most recently CEO and President at Optanix, a software and solution provider for large enterprise collaboration and communications technology, where he led the team through a successful sale of the company in 2021.

Prior to joining Optanix, Mike served as CEO of Arcserve, a provider of data backup and recovery solutions, where he led the team that took the company independent. Before that, he held several executive level roles at CA Technologies, one of the largest independent software corporations in the world, and spent eight years in technology sales leadership roles at one of the largest resellers in the world.

Mike holds B.S. degrees in Business Administration, Computer Science and Communications from Minnesota State University.

Vaibhav joins W Energy Software with over 12 years of experience in leading technology teams and developing cloud-native products. He has consistently shown a strong passion for utilizing technology to drive innovation and tackle complex challenges. In his current position as Director of Engineering at W Energy Software, Vaibhav oversees the engineering function, focusing on building an integrated SaaS platform tailored for the energy industry. Prior to joining W Energy Software, Vaibhav spearheaded the development of a cloud-native multi-tenant SaaS platform called JOYN at Seven Lakes Technologies.

Vaibhav holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Allahabad.

Sam joined True Wind in 2021. Prior to joining True Wind, Sam was co-CFO of Active Interest Media. Prior to his role at Active Interest Media, Sam worked at Wind Point Partners, a private equity firm, and in the Financial Sponsors Group at Citigroup.

Sam holds a B.A. in International Studies and a minor in Latin American Studies from Johns Hopkins University.

Mike Anello is dedicated to helping growth-oriented businesses maximize their operations by applying his extensive sales and marketing expertise to portfolio companies.

Prior to founding M33, Mike was a member of the ops team at Valor Equity Partners, where he focused on implementing sales and marketing best practices across the firm’s portfolio. Before this, Mike led business development for Axium Software (acquired by Deltek), where he led acquisitions and helped double the size of Axium’s sales and marketing engine in less than two years. Mike has worked with several companies to optimize and streamline their sales and marketing efforts, including Illumio Software, Tesla Motors, Manduka, Porch, and Project44. He was also a cofounder of Cleverlayover. Mike, Gabe and Brian first worked together at General Catalyst. There Mike built the sourcing team and focused on software and healthcare opportunities.

Mike graduated from the University of Notre Dame summa cum laude. He walked on to the Notre Dame Football Team, eventually earning a scholarship and two-time Academic All-American Honors. Mike received his MBA from Harvard Business School. While there, he partnered with Shikhar Ghosh and Mark Roberge to build a playbook around best practices for scaling sales teams from $10 million to $100 million in revenue.

Mike’s passion for giving back led to the launch of Boston’s inaugural St. Baldrick’s Event, a pediatric oncology research foundation. Since then he has led more than 10 events in four cities.

Pete Waldroop has served as executive, CEO, and Board member for numerous organizations over his 26 year career in IT and software.  Mr. Waldroop has founded such successful organizations as Waterfield Energy, Capitalize Consulting, and Quorum Business Solutions. Mr. Waldroop’s commitment to client service now extends to cyber security though Asgard Cyber Security.

Rachel Collins joins WES with over 25 years of organizational transformation experience. Prior to WES, Rachel was the General Manager of Insite360, the software and analytics division of Gilbarco Veeder-Root (a NYSE:VNT operating company). Prior to Insite360, Rachel served as General Manager and SVP at Aurea Software (ESW Capital/Trilogy), where she directly managed several acquisitions including ista NA, Lyris, MessageOne, AlertFind, Artemis, Jive software operations, and Jive’s FedRAMP program. Rachel is responsible for over a billion annual recurring revenue since 2013. She also founded a boutique consulting firm focused on java development and middleware integration serving the energy, financial services, and healthcare sectors.

Rachel graduated with Cum Laude honors from LSU, with a B.S. in Information Systems and Decision Sciences. In 2019, Rachel graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors from Colorado State University Global, with a Master’s Degree in Finance.

Sally has spent 20+ years in IT, Commercial Software and Consulting focused on Operations and Customer Success.  Sally most recently was the VP of Customer Success at Gilbarco Veeder-Root (a NYSE:VNT operating company), a retail petroleum equipment manufacturer and technology platform with a customer base of more than $450mm in annual revenues in their Retail Solutions organization.  Sally joined W Energy Software in April of 2023 and will leverage her extensive experience in managing large Services & Customer Success organizations to drive efficiencies through automation and build cross functional synergies to support our growth and scale.   

Hari is a highly experienced professional who over 18 years has consistently demonstrated a passion for leveraging technology to achieve exceptional business outcomes in the Energy industry. Prior to W Energy Software, Hari as the Director of product management was pivotal in shaping the JOYN product line and ensuring its alignment with overall business strategy making Seven Lakes Technologies a market leader in oilfield operations and data capture. As an offshore oilfield engineer in the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, Hari brings a unique perspective to the Energy software industry. 

Hari graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management with an MBA. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Materials & Metallurgical engineering from the world-renowned Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

Stacey McCroskey, Ph.D., PMP joins WES with over 25 years’ experience in both corporate and educational settings. She has focused on software products and services in the oil & gas, construction, and financial services industries. She is a management professional with global experience in strategic planning, product leadership, project and change management, product development, and employee development.  Stacey has also worked as a college professor and Dean teaching management, leadership, organizational behavior, and project management courses.

Stacey earned her undergraduate degree and Master of Science in Accounting Degrees from Oklahoma State University. She also has a Master of Arts in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and her Doctor of Philosophy in Organization and Management from Capella University. She has her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification from the Project Management Institute.

Hayes has over 17 years of experience in the Energy and Financial Services space driving high growth organizations while focusing on operational improvements and delivery excellence. She earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from the University of Mississippi.

Specialties: Management / Technology Consulting, Strategy, Disciplined Sales Execution, Account / Customer Success Management, Relationship Management, Delivery Methodologies & Best Practices, Estimating Models & Frameworks, SaaS & On-Premise Software Implementation, Program / Project Management, Team Building & Leadership, and P&L Management.

Gary Napotnik is an exceptional marketing and business development leader with a proven track record of driving growth and achieving success. He has led the marketing and business development effort for four successful global SaaS companies over the last two decades to more than $100 million in revenue. As the Senior Vice President of Marketing at W Energy, he is dedicated to developing customer-centric marketing strategies and programs that drive market impact and accelerate customer success. Before joining W, he held the Chief Marketing Officer position at Mize/Syncron, Rsam, and NTT Security. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Fairmont State University.