# Mark LaCour Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder, Oil and Gas Global Network (OGGN) Canonical: https://mornings.network/shows/center-stage/guests/mark-lacour ## Biography Mark LaCour is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of the Oil and Gas Global Network (OGGN), the world's largest podcast network dedicated to the oil, gas, and energy industry. Based in the greater Houston area, LaCour has built one of the most influential independent media companies in the energy sector — a network that now spans more than 30 active shows, reaches listeners in every country on the planet, and has accumulated over 2.7 million downloads from professionals, executives, and engineers across all segments of the energy value chain. His journey from US Marine and wildlife biologist to industry media pioneer is one of the most distinctive and unlikely origin stories in the modern energy media landscape. LaCour's entry into the oil and gas world was not by design. A former Marine from North Louisiana, he served four years before enrolling at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Management. Unable to find corporate employment with that degree, he took a chance on a startup called Cellular One at the dawn of the mobile era, then moved to BellSouth where he was assigned every oil and gas account in his territory — accounts other salespeople avoided because the companies were too complex, too demanding, and too slow to move. LaCour took them because he needed the job. Within years, he had developed a fluency with the industry's culture, buying processes, and decision-making hierarchies that would prove foundational to everything that followed. After nearly a decade managing oil and gas accounts at BellSouth and AT&T, LaCour moved into the analyst and research side of the industry, serving as Key Account Director for Oil & Gas at Forrester Research, and later founding his own global sales enablement firm, Modalpoint, LLC. Through Modalpoint, he worked directly with technology companies trying to penetrate the oil and gas market — determining exactly who in these organizations would buy, what problems they were trying to solve, and how to get in front of them at scale. His reputation as an industry 'insider' and independent third-party researcher grew steadily. By the time a marketing colleague suggested starting a podcast in October 2014, LaCour had already logged over 2,200 face-to-face meetings with oil and gas decision-makers across the globe and closed more than $305 million in deals — all on handshakes and honesty. He famously called the podcast idea stupid. Three months later, Redwing Boots became the first paid sponsor of an oil and gas podcast, and OGGN was born. From a single show — Oil and Gas This Week, co-hosted with Paige Wilson — the network has grown into a 30-plus podcast operation with dedicated programming covering upstream, midstream, downstream, HSE, legal, supply chain, energy transition, mining, digital transformation, and more. OGGN is recognized across the industry as the definitive voice of the people who actually work in energy — not the policy commentators or the environmental advocates, but the engineers, executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators doing the work every day. LaCour has been listed on speakers bureaus including Speakers.com and Executive Speakers Bureau, and frequently addresses major energy conferences on topics ranging from the future of the oil and gas industry to how hydrocarbons actually work. Beyond media, LaCour sits on multiple oil and gas advisory boards — including RealWear, Sonim Technologies, RuggedEdge, and Acceleration Energy — and serves as a board member and Director of Public Relations for the Houston chapter of the American Petroleum Institute, the largest API chapter in the world. He is an author, a published contributor to energy trade publications, a mentor to students through STEM outreach programs, and a long-standing member of both the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Independent Petroleum Association of America. His professional identity is inseparable from a deeply held conviction that the oil and gas industry is profoundly misunderstood by the general public — and that it is his mission to close that gap through honest, high-integrity storytelling at scale. LaCour's personal philosophy — shaped by Marine Corps discipline, decades of field sales experience, and a genuine love for the people of his industry — is that character is the only currency that lasts. He famously closed hundreds of millions in deals without a contract in hand. He is a practitioner of grappling martial arts, a gym devotee who trains at least four days a week, and a man who admits freely that the best decision he ever made was joining the Marine Corps, despite the fact that four years of cold, wet, and difficult taught him it was not a permanent career. He carries all of that into every conversation about an industry that, in his view, powers modern civilization and deserves a far better story than the one being told about it. ## Links - linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oil-and-gas-expert-speaker - twitter: https://x.com/Mark_LaCour - facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oilandgasglobalnetwork/ - youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OfficialOGGN ## Transcript Have you ever dismissed an idea and then watched it change everything or felt stuck inside an industry that seems too old, too rigid, too impossible to move? Today's guest knows that feeling. When someone pitched him podcasting, he called it a stupid idea. 3 months later, Redwing Boots became the first paid sponsor of an oil and gas podcast. That podcast didn't just survive, it became OGGN, now the world's largest oil and gas podcast network. Mark is editor-in-chief and co-founder. And he built it after 25 years selling into the toughest rooms in energy. He sat through more than 2,000 meetings across the globe, face to face with the biggest names in oil and gas. That's real reps. He helps technology companies earn trust with energy giants, turning brand exposure into faster, easier sales. After Hurricane Katrina, he made handshake deals worth millions to help companies recover and every client paid. He's a former US Marine from North Louisiana who believes people stories matter more than spreadsheets. He challenges the idea that oil and gas only cares about profit, embedding giving back into OGGN's culture. From fighting human trafficking with Red M to spotlighting diversity and energy, he's building something bigger than media. Mark, welcome to the big show. What would you do if a marketing guy came to you with an idea and you thought to yourself, 'It was so dumb, you only said yes just to shut him up.' Well, today's guest did exactly that. And that one stupid idea turned into the largest oil and gas podcast network on the planet. And oh, before all that, he was a United States Marine who went on to sell over $300 million worth of deals on nothing but handshakes and honesty. [Mark LaCour]: What's up, guys? First thing — I love your production quality already, guys. And the sizzle reel you made for me is better than one my own people made for me. [Host]: So, Mark — you're a marine guy, cold, wet, getting shot at as you described it. But now you're in oil and gas. Are you a marketing guy, sales guy? Tell us about that journey. [Mark LaCour]: Yeah. So I wanted to serve my country. Also, my parents couldn't afford to send me to school. So the choice was to join the armed forces. I joined the Marines because I wanted to be the best of the best. And then after four years of being cold and wet and shot at, I decided that maybe was not the best career choice for me — although it was the best choice I ever made in my entire life. So I went to college and I got a degree in wildlife management. I wanted to save the planet. And the environmentalists hate me now because they can't fool me.