When one thinks of West Texas, wind, dust, and gas stations that double as cafes are likely to come to mind. We’re also willing to bet oil, gas, mineral rights, and pumpjacks as far as the eye can see will pop into that noggin, too.  

So, when landman and PlainsCapital Bank senior vice president Kathy Robertson told me she was born in Fort Worth but grew up in a West Texas town called Dell City, I figured her vocation was a return to her roots. But it turns out, Dell City is in what Robertson dubs “far, far West Texas — on the west side of the Guadalupe Mountains. Population: 500. It’s in the middle of nowhere.” But it’s no doubt beautiful country, and it’s an area Robertson continues to regularly visit. 

She’d make her way to the South Plains and attend Texas Tech, where she studied animal science and eventually found her way back to where it all began: Fort Worth. 

Of course, anyone who keeps up with what goes on below ground in Cowtown knows that Fort Worth was one heck of a place to be circa 2002, thanks to the Barnett Shale boom. Working in real estate at the time, the boom saw Robertson transition to becoming a landman after being convinced by a local developer to work for him under that capacity. 

Now, if you have yet to watch an episode of Taylor Sheridan’s Fort Worth-filmed show “Landman,” don’t sweat it. If you have, Robertson suggests not using it as your textbook for understanding the role of the show’s titular vocation. And, though women making up on only a quarter of landmen, the work itself isn’t laden with machismo energy. A landman is a mineral rights deal maker, someone who, through hours of arduous research of public and private records to determine property ownership — which can sometimes evolve into studying multipronged, multigenerational family trees — to ensure the right people receive the right compensation when the drilling and fracking begins. 

But after the Barnett Shale cooled off and the price of natural gas dropped, companies headed for the hills — or, Pennsylvania, toward the now-booming Marcellus Shale, to be specific.  

“I had a young daughter in junior high, so I didn’t want to leave and go to Pennsylvania,” Robertson says. “So, I sent my resume out to a few companies, and Petrodata Systems out of Arlington picked it up.”  

A niche accounting software for managing oil and gas assets, Petrodata Systems gave Robertson experience on the accounting side of the industry, while also providing her account management experience after the company “dumped seven banks into my lap” during a coworker’s extended absence. With this welcomed responsibility, Robertson was now getting experience in every aspect of oil and gas property operations. 

Taking on more banks as clients, Robertson would eventually parlay this job into her current position. “I found out that PlainsCapital Bank acquired the software and started the department. So, I applied for and got the job,” says Robertson, who now serves as the company’s senior vice president and manager of oil and gas property operations. “And we’ve built the department from the ground up.” 

Robertson now manages 105 clients — of whom she could tell 105 fascinating stories about — and is a respected voice and veteran leader within the industry. As she and I were leaving the breakfast joint where we chatted, she mentioned speaking at a conference and having young women approach her, telling her, “You’re a badass.”  

Robertson then tells me, “I never thought I’d be a badass at 62.” 

Read more about women breaking barriers in male-dominated industries in Fort Worth Magazine.