Henry May

Henry S. May III is a Managing Director at Post Oak Energy Capital, a Houston-based private equity firm founded in 2006 that makes direct investments in the middle-market energy sector. Some third-party and event listings still carry his earlier "Vice President" title (e.g., a 2019 Energy Council speaking appearance on a Water Infrastructure panel), while the firm's own current bio lists him as Managing Director — indicating a promotion over his tenure at the firm.

Before joining Post Oak, May was an Executive Director at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH), an energy-focused investment and merchant bank, where he advised exploration & production companies and their stakeholders on acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, and public and private capital raises. He joined TPH in 2011. Prior to that, he worked in a similar advisory capacity at Barclays Capital and its predecessor advisory group at Lehman Brothers.

Earlier in his career, May worked as a Solutions Engineer at Grant Prideco, developing downhole tools for directional drilling; the company was acquired by National Oilwell Varco in 2007. During that period he authored technical papers for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE), reflecting a hands-on operational/engineering background that is unusual among finance professionals.

May holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Sord Scholar and a Dean's Award recipient. His combination of petroleum-engineering roots and energy investment-banking experience aligns closely with Post Oak's stated approach of pairing corporate-finance expertise with operational backgrounds.

• Firm strategy: Post Oak makes control and growth private-equity investments in middle-market energy companies — primarily upstream oil & gas, oil & gas mineral rights in core producing basins, oilfield services, and related infrastructure.
• Check size: Typically ~$20M–$100M per transaction at the firm level, with capacity for larger commitments.
• What makes them say yes: The firm backs "management teams with a demonstrated track record of creating shareholder value" and "compelling business plans," and states it works "closely with management teams to deliver strategic planning and corporate finance expertise while leveraging operational backgrounds."
• Portfolio construction: The firm emphasizes a "tight knit portfolio" of complementary (non-competing) businesses that benefit from the principals' industry network and differentiated deal flow.
• Geography/basins: Concentrated in North American producing basins — recent Fund V capital has been deployed across the Permian, Utica, and Haynesville.
• Note on stage: This is not seed/angel investing. The "Seed Round / Angel Investors" fields in the source stub do not reflect Post Oak's actual mandate (growth/buyout PE in energy).