{"id":2452698,"date":"2019-12-29T23:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318408"},"modified":"2019-12-29T23:25:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T06:25:00","slug":"aspen-local-named-to-2020-forbes-list-of-30-under-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-local-named-to-2020-forbes-list-of-30-under-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen local named to 2020 Forbes\u2019 list of 30 under 30"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Whitney Wickes, co-founder of Rocking WW Minerals, sits for a photo in Snowmass Village on Friday, December 27, 2019. Wickes was named to the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 list for her work in the oil and gas industry. She is the daughter of Sundance Liquor & Spirits owners Barbara and Steve Wickes. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times).<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Every year for the past eight years, Forbes business magazine has published an extensive list of the top 30 most innovative and trail-blazing entrepreneurs in as many as 20 different American industries.<\/p>\n

In early December, Forbes put out its 2020 list of 600 people dubbed as \u201crevolutionaries\u201d and \u201cgame-changers\u201d all under 30 years old. By Forbes\u2019 numbers, 40% of those chosen were female, 59% were male, over 65% were founders or co-founders of their company, the average age of those recognized was 27 and one awardee was a 29-year-old woman raised in Aspen-Snowmass.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first issue of Forbes 30 under 30 came out when I was 21 and as soon as I saw it, I made it my goal to be on that list one day,\u201d said Whitney Wickes, an Aspen native who was one of the top 30 oil and gas entrepreneurs recognized on the 2020 list.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I woke up in the morning and saw that I was on this year\u2019s list it was a little surreal, realizing that somehow I had made it to that point in a little less than nine years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever since she was a kid, Wickes said she\u2019s been determined to be the best.<\/p>\n

A standout freeskier for Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club<\/a> in her teens, earning a silver medal in slopestyle at the 2008 Junior Olympics, and riding to become a top-ranked equestrian in her early 20s<\/a>, Wickes said she\u2019s pushed herself to her limits and excelled in athletics for much of her life.<\/p>\n

But after taking a step back from skiing and competitive sports as result of her fourth knee surgery, Wickes said she shifted her focus to academics, pursuing a finance degree at the University of Colorado Boulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had chosen finance because growing up in Aspen, one of my standards of success and the people I looked up to were people who came from a finance background,\u201d Wickes said.<\/p>\n

For Wickes, succeeding in finance meant making it to Wall Street and having a profound career there, becoming a \u201cshe-wolf\u201d of sorts.<\/p>\n

Soon after confessing that goal to a CU Boulder professor, however, Wickes said her dream was crushed; the professor said she went to the wrong school if she wanted to make it to the New York City financial district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was kind of a turning point for me because I thought about it and realized he was pretty much right,\u201d Wickes said.<\/p>\n

But the summer after that semester while working at the old Pacifica seafood restaurant in Aspen, Wickes said her competitive energy was pushed in a new direction: striving to become a leading oil and gas entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a couple of regulars who were oil and gas guys from Dallas and Houston and I became friends with one in particular who took an interest in me,\u201d Wickes said. \u201cHe told me about what it is to be an oil and gas landman and I remember calling my dad and saying I know what I\u2019m doing with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the American Association of Professional Landmen, a landman is the \u201cpublic facing side\u201d of oil, gas and mineral exploration that interacts directly with landowners to acquire leases on behalf of oil and gas companies.<\/p>\n

Wickes said the job seemed adventurous and saw it as a way to make a positive impact on communities directly affected by the American energy industry.<\/p>\n

Now after quickly learning the ropes and cofounding Rocking WW Minerals, a Wyoming-based mineral and royalty acquisition company, she aims to ensure the transfer of mineral wealth from private owners to corporations in the Rockies region is done ethically, ruling out the Wall Street brokers and flippers and \u201ckeeping your minerals in Wyoming\u201d; improving environmental stewardship and maximizing the recovery of hydrocarbons; and abiding by the \u201ccode of the West,\u201d striving for fairness and honoring tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of these folks, their net worth is tied to their minerals, and if your minerals aren\u2019t developed they aren\u2019t worth anything. So we\u2019re coming in and we\u2019re trying to be a resource to Wyoming, using our technical expertise from the drilling side to be able to really value minerals,\u201d Wickes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives people the opportunity to diversify their wealth \u2026 and ensures mineral owners get the full value of their minerals.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what Wickes\u2019 future holds, now that she\u2019s made the Forbes 30 under 30 list and that her industry is facing the global push toward a carbon-free economy, she said her goals are rooted in both the oil and gas industry and the desire to mitigate the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

For Wickes, the need for countries like China and India \u2014 which are two countries the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects will see a roughly 50% increase in carbon consumption between 2018 and 2050 \u2014 to switch from coal to natural gas as their main energy sources is the first step toward a greener planet.<\/p>\n

She hopes to play a part in helping developing countries make that switch and hopes to serve as what she sees as a much-needed millennial voice leading the oil and gas industry for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that my generation has definitely villainized oil and gas and they don\u2019t really understand the global significance of fossil fuels, whether that\u2019s from a climate change perspective, an economy perspective or just a domestic security perspective,\u201d Wickes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary to me that millennials aren\u2019t taking an interest in oil and gas because fossil fuels aren\u2019t going anywhere. \u2026 That\u2019s a major motivator for me, being a leader of the millennial generation in oil in gas and playing a role in mitigating climate change from a natural gas perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whitney Wickes, co-founder of Rocking WW Minerals, sits for a photo in Snowmass Village on Friday, December 27, 2019. Wickes was named to the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 list for her work in the oil and gas industry. She is the daughter of Sundance Liquor & Spirits owners Barbara and Steve Wickes. (Kelsey Brunner\/The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 23:38:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}