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Moving Beyond the Gravitational Pull of Racism
On Sunday, I announced that London-based petrochemical company, PTFPlusOne, Ltd., has inked a deal to acquire Masada Resource Group, LLC, my Birmingham-based waste-to-energy company. Since this announcement, I have received an avalanche of congratulatory messages and private inquiries about my future plans.
After the acquisition is complete, I will join PTF's senior management team and become an equity member in the company. I will also join PTF's board of directors.
These moves will give me a chance to work directly with PTF's very talented multinational executives. It will also expose me to a network of powerful international alliance partners as PTF advances and protects its sustained competitive advantage in the oil, chemical and hydrocarbon industries.
What is more, I will be geographically closer to my energy services company in Windhoek, Namibia (West Africa). In July 2012, this company was awarded a petroleum exploration license by the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy. In 2016, the company announced the discovery of a massive reservoir of unrisked oil and natural gas within its licensed territory offshore. The company is proceeding with the geotechnical work program necessary for the commercial extraction of these natural resources.
Life in Alabama
Having grown up in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s and 60s and having lived and worked in the state as a civil rights attorney during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, I have been exposed to the harshest forms of racism all of my life. I lived through the periods of rigidly enforced racial segregation, massive resistance to desegregation, racially motivated lynchings and murders, beatings, church burnings and bombings, and so-called "integration". None of these chapters in Alabama's history has been comfortable for people of color. All of them have held down the oppressors, as well as the oppressed.
In Alabama, every major policy decision in state government and business is viewed through the prism of race. Many of the state's public and private institutions are set up to advance one race at the expense of another one. In Alabama, the time-honored solution to the state's racial problems is to simply ignore them.
In Alabama, positive change only occurs at a very infrequent and slow pace. Too often, the state is moving in a reverse direction from the rest of the developed world.
A New World
The Masada-PTF acquisition is a very good deal from a business standpoint. It also presents an opportunity to move beyond the gravitational pull of Alabama's racism.
I enjoy competing in the global marketplace of business ideas. I like it when the success or failure of my business ideas is based upon the quality and price of my goods and services, and not the color of my skin. I love working in countries that embrace paradigm-shifting technologies, regardless of the color of the person who develops and implements them.
I am the CEO of a multinational company who enjoys direct and frequent interaction with the CEOs of other energy companies. I can find this in abundance in the new world. In Namibia, for example, my oil company's headquarters is located in the office building adjacent to British Petroleum's headquarters.
I want to be a full participant in the global stream of commerce. I enjoy business ownership, with its never-ending challenges, ups and downs, and occasional successes.
It is also a wonderful experience whenever I get a chance to shatter the negative racial stereotypes held by many Americans (both black and white), a lot of white-owned businesses, and government agencies toward black owned/managed businesses. We have done this in the fields of law, banking, insurance, and now, energy.
Finally, Masada has afforded me a unique platform to move beyond the gravitation pull of racism. The Masada-PTF deal is my bridge to a new world. Along with my soon-to-be British, Dutch, Irish, and German team of business alliance partners at PTF, I look forward to marching toward a promising future with the best and brightest minds in the international energy world.
Donald V Watkins
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