Kate Richard


Katherine 'Kate' Taaffe Richard is an American businesswoman who specializes in private equity investing, with a focus on real assets, particularly upstream oil and gas. In 2010, she founded Warwick Energy Group, an energy-focused private equity firm with approximately $1.5 billion in managed assets. Warwick Energy Group is a premier provider of private equity capital in the US energy industry. Current investments of note include ownership of the largest private company in the core of the STACK and SCOOP oil and gas fields in Oklahoma, and an interest in the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas field in Karnes and Live Oak County, Texas.
Richard was dubbed "Miss Fracking" by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung for her industry leadership in advocating for natural gas as a solution to U.S. energy independence.

Early life and education

Richard's great uncle founded Devon Energy and drilled wells in the Caspian Sea following the fall of the Soviet Union.
Richard graduated in 2004 from Harvard College. Her academic focus was postcolonial theory, with research focused on Rwanda.

Early career

After Richard graduated from Harvard in 2004, she worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker and investor in the private equity division in New York, Paris, and London.
After leaving Goldman in 2007, Richard invested in public and private debt and equity of oil and gas and metals and mining companies, as well as sovereign debt at Serengeti Asset Management in New York.
Richard left Serengeti in 2009 to invest in international and domestic energy companies for MSD Capital, Michael Dell’s private investment firm in New York.

Warwick Energy

Richard founded Warwick Energy Group in 2010. The Group specializes in the consolidation of interests in the lowest cost oil and gas basins in the US.
Warwick owns and manages oil and gas drilling investment funds. The firm’s investments are concentrated in the SCOOP and STACK Basins of Oklahoma and in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The firm currently has around 50 investment professionals.
In January 2019, Warwick was featured by the Kayo Conference Series as one of the "Top 19 in 2019 - Buyout Funds Founded by Women."

Other Involvement

Richard has served in a number of board and advisory roles. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Flotek Industries, Inc. and has previously served on the Boards of Imerys, SA, a Paris-based industrial conglomerate and Abraxas Petroleum Corp. She has also served an adviser to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines on energy development and transparency.
She is a current member of the National Council of the American Enterprise Institute
She has lectured at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas, and the University of Oklahoma.
Richard is regularly interviewed by financial media for her insights on the energy sector. She has appeared on Bloomberg and is a regular contributor to CNBC's Power Lunch.

Awards and Recognitions

Richard was selected to represent the United States in 2013 as one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders and is a member of the Forum's Oil & Gas Agenda Council.
In 2014, Oil & Gas Investor named her one of 20 Rising Stars in the Oil & Gas Industry Under 40. She has also served as a judge for Forbes "30 Under 30 in Energy" award.
In June 2019, Richard was selected as EY's Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 Southwest Award for FinTech & Financial Services