Bill Ward has spent four decades building pipelines, growing midstream companies and leading people — but his career started with a $5-a-can neighborhood trash route.
In this episode of the Midstream News Podcast, the former Superior Midstream CEO and GPA Midstream Lifetime Achievement Award recipient shares some of the experiences that shaped his approach to business and leadership.
He recounts the county right-of-way hearing where officials thought his company planned to raise and launch actual pigs, explains the responsibility he felt for 120 employees as CEO, and reveals why his leadership philosophy became: “We win as a team. We lose as a team — but that’s on me.”
Ward also discusses the industry’s changing safety and regulatory environment, the competition for skilled workers, and why AI could transform midstream as dramatically as computers and cell phones did. He reflects on switching roles from operator to vendor after the sale of Superior Midstream, the mentor who showed him the kind of leader he wanted to become, and how volunteering with GPA Midstream helped prepare him for the CEO’s chair. Plus, hear why a commercial guy sometimes needs an engineer to bring him back from “the unicorn,” what Ward believes people outside the industry misunderstand about midstream.
Bonus: Find out how a football coach ended Ward’s brief career riding bulls.
Listen and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
