Affiliation: University of Arizona

When the research team arrived in Lafayette, Lillian Espinoza-Gala brought us to a Desk and Derrick meeting. While there, we met a lot of women who work in the administrative side of the oil and gas industry. We received contact information and shared ours with the meeting-goers. After the meeting we received a call from a Desk and Derrick member, Kay Gotte. Kay wanted to schedule a time for us to interview her boss, Al Bellaire. Al is a vice president at Sierra-Hamilton. We agreed to meet at Al’s office to conduct an interview on June 22nd.

Al Bellaire is from Lafayette. He started his career in the oil and gas industry as a production foreman at Shell. After serving in the Vietnam War, Al continued working for Shell. For a time he worked as a mud engineer. He then moved to Lafayette and started working in drilling. He and a few other men started a consulting business; that business was eventually sold and merged into other companies. At the time of the interview, Al is the vice president at Sierra-Hamilton