Management Team
John Walker
President & Chief Executive Officer
John Walker joined El Toro Resources in February of 2015. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Walker led multiple design and manufacturing companies in the industrial automation space for both private and private equity ownership. He has an excellent record of driving company revenue growth, stakeholder value growth, and successful exits. In 25 years of steering automation companies, he has led businesses serving clients throughout the scope of industry, including surface control and down-hole operations in oil and gas. He has directed the development of products and systems used by companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger, Wood Group, Emerson Process Management, Flowserv, Delta Valve and Kim-ray. In addition to leading El Toro Resources, Mr. Walker has served and serves as a board member and consultant for multiple companies in the industrial automation, medical device and consumer electronics spaces.
Mr. Walker holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Jeff Smith
Vice President - Accounting
Jeff Smith joined El Toro in 2020 as Assistant Controller, was promoted to Controller, and then Vice President - Accounting. Prior to El Toro Jeff spent 10 years in Public Accounting focused on Audit, Tax, and Compilation for small businesses in the Energy, Construction, Retail, and Medical industries around Oklahoma City. In 2012 he worked as a Senior accountant for RKI Exploration and Production and participated in the merger and acquisition with WPX Energy in 2015. In 2016 Jeff joined the Hertz Corporation as the contract administrator overseeing the company’s Fleet OEM contracts for over 500,000 vehicles in North America and responsible for the accurate and timely reporting of related accounting.
Mr. Smith holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma.
Jay A. Thomas
Vice President - Land
Jay Thomas has served as Land Manager for El Toro since January 2015. Prior to this position, Mr. Thomas served as Manager of Westhawk Minerals LLC and supervised a staff that acquired mineral and royalty interests primarily in the Appalachian Basin from February 2012. He served as Director of Business Development for Gulfport Energy Corporation from June 2008 until February 2012 and was responsible for the Land Department, Lease Records, Division Orders, Acquisitions and Divestitures. From April 2007 to June 2008 he served as CEO and President of Grizzly Oil Sands ULC when the company acquired over 1 million acres of oil sand rights in northern Alberta. From October 1998 to April 2007, he served as Land Manager of Gulfport. Beginning in July of 1995, he was Land Manager of DLB Oil & Gas, Inc. prior to the sale of the company to Chesapeake Energy. He was a contract landman for DLB from September 1992 to July of 1995. Prior to Mr. Thomas being hired at DLB, he was a contract landman for various clients in the Anadarko Basin, West Texas, Kansas and Arkansas.
Mr. Thomas holds a B.S. in Petroleum Land Management from the University of Oklahoma.
Nick Smith
Vice President - Operations
Nick Smith joined El Toro Resources in 2015 as Operations Manager and was promoted to Director of Operations, then Vice President - Operations. Mr. Smith leads El Toro in all areas of drilling and completion operations, production, compliance, and vendor relations. Prior to coming to El Toro, Mr. Smith served as Operations Manager for EF Energy, a private equity-owned oil and gas operator in Houston, TX. Mr. Smith has a successful history of drilling and completing horizontal wells in both the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin plays. Before EF Energy, Smith gained valuable experience working for premier service providers Cudd and Halliburton. His areas of expertise include drilling, hydraulic fracturing, completions, production, facilities, workovers, and re-completions.
Mr. Smith holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University