Jones Energy CEO wants to go public

Jonny Jones is the founder, chairman and CEO of Jones Energy Ltd.

Editor?s note: This is part of a series of articles on the winners of Ernst & Young?s 2012 Entrepreneurs Of The Year contest. Interviews and Q&As done with other winners can be found here.

Jonny Jones founded Jones Energy in 1988 with the Jones Family from Albany, Texas.

With family roots in the petroleum industry dating back to the 1920s, Jones is a third generation explorationist with more than 20 years of experience focusing on the mid-continent region of the United States. Through his direction, Jones Energy resurrected natural gas exploration of Permian reservoirs in the Texas Panhandle using 3D seismic and horizontal drilling.

Jones Energy has noted discoveries in Hansford, Hutchinson, Gray and Lipscomb counties in Texas along with additional activity in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and West Virginia. Jones was formerly a production geologist with Standard Oil/British Petroleum in Oklahoma City, Dallas and Houston. He serves on the advisory council of the University of Oklahoma?s School of Geology and Geophysics, and he has been actively involved in fundraising efforts there. He is active in the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Independent Petroleum Association of America, and Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. He holds a bachelor?s in geology from the University of Oklahoma and a master?s in geology from the University of Texas at Austin.

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