Pacific Gas and Electric Company
11/29/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/29/2021 11:08
PG&E Supplier Aims to be an Example to Other Native American Entrepreneurs
By Tony Khing
Amongst the members of Oklahoma's Osage Nation, Big Elk stands for strength, courage and leadership.
These characteristics were shown by Big Elk, one of the nation's chiefs in the late 1800s.
More than a century later, one of the descendants of Big Elk practices these traits every day while running a company which delivered PG&E a biomethane system that will assist in the recycling of methane gas for use by the company's 16 million customers.
Big Elk Energy Systems built this biomethane recycling system for PG&E.
In 2016, Big Elk Energy Systems was one of 20 suppliers who submitted a bid to fabricate equipment to support PG&E's Inline Integrity Program for Gas Operations. While Big Elk's bid wasn't the successful bidder, their work as a subcontractor to another PG&E supplier impressed the company. By 2019, they started making skids for dairy farms to measure, regulate and analyze methane gas coming from their manure digester before injecting the gas into the pipeline.
"Big Elk has repeatedly provided PG&E with cost effective and timely fabrications that meet or exceed safety, quality, design and traceability requirements," said Katrina Dyrby, who works with Big Elk in PG&E's Gas Strategic Sourcing Department.
Displaying Strength and Courage…
In 2014, Big Elk CEO Geoff Hager, whose third great grandfather was Big Elk, was walking in the hallway of his company when he decided to quit his job as a technical sales and commercial business director for a pipeline equipment manufacturing company. He wanted to start his own business.
Hager wasn't spurred by any personal or professional event. "I just knew in my inner self that I was supposed to do this," he said.
Hager worked on raising money and emptied his family's savings account ($140,000) to place a deposit on 12.5 acres of land where his company currently exists. However, the investment offers fell through and time ran out with the property owner on Hager's non-refundable deposit.
Big Elk CEO Geoff Hager with his mother, Alma, outside the company's headquarters in Oklahoma.
"Lots of times our business has faced imminent death," said Hager, "only to have something substantial arrive just in time. Miraculously, I was able to raise new investment money within a couple of months."
That's not all. The property seller decided to honor Hager's expired offer, despite interest from other parties, and returned his $140,000 deposit.
The money came in handy for Hager and his family.
"I went without pay the first couple of years and without medical insurance the first year after I left my job," he said.
Hager opened Big Elk in October 2014 with 18 employees. Before the pandemic, the company employed more than 110 people. Today, Hager's workforce is down to 48 but he says Big Elk is "starting to build back."
…and Leadership
In seven years, Big Elk has become a leader in the design and manufacturing of not only biomethane skids but also of meters, piping and valves used by various oil and gas companies.
"We have product installed all over the world," said Hager. "With three patents and continued innovation, we're fulfilling our commitment to leave the industry better than when we came into it.
"I wake up and grind every day not only to take care of my own family, but also to provide an example to other Native American entrepreneurs who are looking for inspiration to chase their dreams," he concluded. "Native culture and history bring a unique perspective and quality to a business. We need more of that influence in our society today."
Email Currents at [email protected]