It is common to hear about ambitious, high-profile private-equity deals, on the order of $50- to $100-million commitments and even much larger, but there are a lot of smaller deals in the transaction pipeline too, mostly done under the radar. Dallas-based JW Brown has been involved in a big share of those through the years.

The Amarillo native graduated from Southern Methodist University with a law degree in 1973, and practiced law, then switched to business with a partner in 1981, buying promoted oil and gas deals and putting investors into them. In 1985, he decided it would be a good idea to get into E&P operations. He raised some money from a few individuals to drill some wells in the Permian Basin, but as oil had by then plummeted to $8 or $9 a barrel, “it was an awful time to be raising money.”

In 1986, he wrapped up the oil and gas company and entered advisory work, to help other independents source capital and investors. Along the way, he worked briefly for Kirkpatrick & Associates; Friedman Billings Ramsey's Dallas office; and EnCap Investments in Dallas. He also worked with former US Treasury Secretary William E. Simon for five years, as WesAl Capital Ltd., where the group invested to help form Hanover Compressor Co.

Brown founded Premier Capital Ltd. in July 1991. Since then, he has advised numerous entrepreneurs on sourcing capital through his extensive contacts; at the same time, he has advised private investors who are looking for energy deals “to get in on the ground floor.” He has done this for E&P start-ups and several midstream and service companies. One of his latest assignments was to source funding for an East Texas entrepreneur who had retired from the saltwater-disposal business, grew bored, and started up a new water-disposal company in the Eagle Ford shale.

He is active in organizing the annual KidLinks Energy Golf Classic tournament for charity in Dallas.

Investor What are you looking for these days?

Brown If someone calls me with a project that I think is interesting, I'll talk about it. I'm still looking around; I still have an office—although last year I took up fly fishing and have gotten somewhat obsessed with that. I just got back from fishing the Amazon in Brazil, which was on my bucket list.

Investor How would you describe your niche?

Brown I am a people person, not a number cruncher. I tend to find the small guy and his opportunity, then go out and get the capital for him, and most of the time I invest in it too. After that, I let others do the back-office things like dealing with the banks and the investors.

Investor One deal always leads to the next, or, one person you know leads to another, right?

Brown That's right. For example, a few guys I had helped when we formed Hanover Compressor Co. left, and started a new compression company called Valerus. I then proposed we create some equipment-leasing partnerships and I started building a nucleus of investors. Valerus later grew big enough and healthy enough to access more capital from Guggenheim.

After the compression business, we found a solid guy to partner with and got into the amine-treating business, to build a rental fleet. That business was sold in 2012 to Magnum Hunter Resources, which wanted to start its own midstream unit, and the investors did extremely well.

The question my investors have is always, What's our next deal?

Investor So what did come next?

Brown We formed Icon Oilfield Services, a through-tubing business in San Antonio focused in the Eagle Ford; a saltwater-disposal business, Karis Resources, also in the Eagle Ford; and the latest is Torrent Energy Services, which leases wellhead gas-treating units.

Investor How did you once help Floyd Wilson?

Brown A guy called me one time years ago, asking if I'd help him put together a presentation he could use, as he was going to go raise some money and then try to make some acquisitions. It was Floyd Wilson. I found out he came to me because I was the only one he knew in Dallas who might help prepare a presentation. I don't normally do that sort of thing, but for him I did. I also offered to help him find some acquisition deals. This was when he was forming 3-Tec.

Investor Do you have an ideal time frame?

Brown No. You don't know if a team is as good as they think they are. Second, you don't know if demand is as good as you think it is, for their service. And you don't know when and if they will be compelling to sell to a third party.

Investor What's most important to you?

Brown What's been most important to me all these years has been my integrity. I like being able to help a smaller guy who needs help pulling together some capital, and whether we get the funding or not, he doesn't have a bad taste in his mouth about the effort. I like knowing he'd call on me again the next time he needs help getting a deal done. I've met a lot of great people and developed some great relationships over the years.

—Leslie Haines

For archives of interviews with industry legends, see OilandGasInvestor.com.