Serving all of the University of Michigan from the Ross School of Business
Serving all of the University of Michigan from the Ross School of Business

Clyde E. McKenzie

Founder and Managing Principal, DE & LA Investments

Clyde McKenzie is the founder and Managing Principal of DE & LA Investments in Boulder Colorado. DE & LA owns and manages commercial real estate in Michigan.

In 2001, Mr. McKenzie was one of three principals that created Strategic Asset Management LLC (“SAM”). SAM invested in a series of real estate syndicates and other businesses in Europe and in the United States. It founded Nexus Resources LLC, an oil and gas exploration and production company. SAM was then revamped to another purpose and replaced by McKenzie Curtis-Lusher & Associates which, in turn, founded Blind Squirrel Partners LLC, a second oil and gas producer. In 2014, MC-L formed BSP II as an oil and gas investment vehicle. The three entities were combined a few years ago and operate in western Oklahoma under the name Nexus Energy Partners. Mr. McKenzie now serves on its advisory board.

Mr. McKenzie and his son, a Michigan graduate and attorney in Colorado, have built the McKenzie Family Partnership by acquiring diversified holdings in oil and gas, real estate and non-operating ownership in privately held industrial companies and early-stage technology plays.

Prior to his experience in forming and managing new companies, Mr. McKenzie was an executive in commercial banking, in oil and gas exploration and production, and in the natural gas pipeline and services industry for over 25 years. He was manager of the energy lending group of First Interstate Bank of Denver (now a Wells Fargo bank). He managed Business Development and, subsequently, Treasury and Finance reporting to the Chairman of Apache Corporation, one of the largest independent energy companies that explores for, develops and produces oil and natural gas worldwide (NYSE: APA). He was Chief Financial Officer of KN Energy, Inc., an integrated energy services provider, when KN acquired Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) which became the successor company.

He has served as a director of a variety of both public and privately held energy companies and on the boards of energy industry and community organizations. He retired as an Emeritus Director of the Anti-Defamation League in the Rocky Mountain region.

Mr. McKenzie resides in Boulder, Colorado and Empire, Michigan. He holds bachelor’s and master’s Degrees from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where he and his wife, Harriet, endow a scholarship for in-state undergraduate students in financial need.