Bud Brigham founded Brigham Exploration Company in 1990 and served as its President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board until its sale to Statoil ASA in December 2011. As founder and CEO, Bud managed Brigham Exploration Company’s rapid growth as a private company from an initial investment of $25,000 in 1990 to its initial public offering in 1997. After 1997, Brigham Exploration continued to achieve low finding costs while achieving significant growth in reserves, production and cash flow. Brigham Exploration was a leading innovator in the Williston Basin Bakken and Three Forks oil resource plays and was the first operator in the basin to drill a long lateral high frac stage well substantially expanding the play. The Company accumulated 375,000 net acres in the Williston Basin and had drilled approximately 100 long lateral high frac stage wells with an average initial production rate of approximately 2,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day prior to its sale in December 2011 for $4.5 billion.

Bud Brigham subsequently founded Anthem Ventures as their family enterprise, Brigham Development for its real estate ventures, and Anthem Productions for its movie ventures. Bud teamed with others to found Brigham Resources and Brigham Minerals for oil and gas investments primarily targeting horizontal drilling and fraccing in domestic unconventional reservoirs. Prior to Brigham Exploration, Bud served for six years as an exploration geophysicist with Rosewood Resources, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. Bud began his career in Houston as a seismic data processing geophysicist for Western Geophysical, a provider of 3-D seismic services, after earning his B.S. in Geophysics from the University of Texas.

Bud is a member of the National Petroleum Council, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), the Independent Producers Association of America (IPAA), the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (SIPES), and The Bureau of Economic Geology Visiting Committee. He was inducted into the All American Wildcatters in April 2012, and in April, 2015 Bud accepted and joined the University of Texas Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee.