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Episode Notes
Chad Hughes welcomes Brent Leftwich, President of Leftwich Management Inc., to the show. They discuss Brent’s 32+ years experience leading Contract Land Staff (CLS), which he transformed into one of North America’s largest independent right of way and land management companies. Brent shares how he grew the business, introduced key technological advancements, and his insights into the right of way industry.
Brent Leftwich earned a BA in Geography with a concentration in Urban Planning and Public Administration from Southwest Texas State University and began his career in the public sector holding various positions with the City of Lockhart, Texas. Brent realized, as he began to get requests to do right of way work in the 80s, that right of way opportunities were more available than the oil and gas work he started in. He founded Contract Land Staff on that realization.
Brent responded to growth and changes in the industry by being a key innovator in introducing new technology into his company. With a focus on always being of good service to his clients, he leaned into developing regional database advancements and looking at new, at that time, virtual technologies. Brent speaks to the value of introducing tools to companies to both lead your industry, accurately track financials, and care for employees. He also stresses how strategic planning led his company through inevitable economic lean times and shares advice for anyone walking a similar business path to his.
“For most projects, we would have two or three days of training orientation before anybody ever went to the field to get survey permission, or the title, or any of that. We made sure that everybody was on the same page to make sure that everybody was telling the landowners the same thing as much as possible. So project wise, I think that training is what really led to us having quality product. But the other part of that is, as I mentioned earlier, we began to develop a project tracking database in the 90s. And we continued to use that all through the rest of the time that I was at CLS, we just continued to develop it and move it to the platform. Our managers could see on a daily basis exactly what each agent was accomplishing.” – Brent Leftwich
About Brent Leftwich
Brent Leftwich, President of Leftwich Management Inc., has an extensive business background. As Founder of Contract Land Staff (CLS), Brent led the company in its growth and advancement in the Right of Way industry from 1985 until 2017, having sold the company twice to equity firms. Brent’s Land Management and Right of Way experience includes 40 years of service to the oil and gas, real estate, pipeline, utility, transportation and telecommunication industries. Over the 32 years leading CLS, he transformed his one-man operation into one of North America’s largest independent Right of Way and Land Management companies.
Brent propelled the growth of CLS, acquiring a reputation of bringing innovation, technology, and new ideas into the Right of Way industry such as the development of CLS’s Virtual Right of Way Department® (VROW) and, beginning in 1995, the Right of Way project management database PowerTrak and its second iteration as the state-of-the-art CLSLiNK database integrated with the CLS GISViewer®, which were developed and deployed to numerous clients in the U.S. and Canada.
Currently, Mr. Leftwich serves as the Chair of the IRWA International Oil & Gas Pipeline Committee and Vice Chair of the Right of Way Consultants Council (ROWCC). Mr. Leftwich has long been active in civic and church activities, both in Fort Bend and Colorado Counties, TX. Currently he serves on the Board of Trustees for the Sugar Land Legacy Foundation and the Columbus Community Hospital.
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Chad Hughes | CEO, Entrepreneurial Leader, Author: website |linkedin
Brent Leftwich | President of Leftwich Management Inc.: website
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