The Business of Balance

By Christine Eddington

An hour and a half into the marathon, 2010 job interview Matt Thomas had with the venerable firm Smith & Pickel Construction, he looked at partners James Pickel and Sam Smith and said, calmly, “When you retire, I’ll buy you out.” It was bold—but also prescient.

Thomas joined the firm during the heady days of Chesapeake Energy’s massive expansion under then-CEO Aubrey McClendon, and quickly climbed the corporate ladder. “In six months, I went from project manager to vice president,” he says. Smith & Pickel’s employee roster had grown to more than 350 at that point, and Thomas’s team was responsible for managing $120 million in projects, a fraction of the firm’s overall portfolio.

The last “big year,” according to Thomas, was 2013, when Smith & Pickel’s projects totaled more than $300 million. When McClendon left Chesapeake, things began to change, and volume decreased. Sharply. And that’s when Thomas bought the company. Within the same short timeframe, the Thomases sold their home and found out Paula was pregnant.

“It was a wild ride,” Thomas says. Although his company continued its work with McClendon, independently and also via his new company American Energy Partners, and although there was still a smattering of Chesapeake projects in the pipeline, Thomas realized he had to diversify his company’s

client base. When McClendon passed away, Thomas says, “It was the third or fourth reminder to stay diverse.”

As Thomas tells his story, his innate calm vibe and general niceness balance the other side of his personality, the bold entrepreneur ready to tackle whatever comes his way. On the one hand, he’s a dedicated husband and father who makes sure he’s home for dinner. His mornings are early, up and exercising, then to the office by about 6 a.m. “I work an honest hard day and I’m home for family dinner,” he says. “For me, I really do prioritize the kids when I am home; I don’t look at my phone.”

OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

He reads to his children every night: mysteries and adventure books for his daughter, Claire, age 8; and for son Shepherd, 5, it’s books with word basics woven into the story.

Then there’s the other side, the astute, hard-driving entrepreneur whose unflappable nature gets him through the ups and downs of running a multi-million-dollar construction firm. It also helps that he loves a good puzzle. “I’ve never been one for having anxiety. I’m antsy when I don’t have a tough challenge to work on,” Thomas says. His M.O. is to identify and understand as many variables as possible, and then just keep attacking the problem.

Smith & Pickel now employs about 65 people, including in-house builders, carpenters and other tradespeople. “We do our own dirt and concrete work. It allows us to control the schedule. Construction is a linear process but the number of trades involved grows,” he says, throughout its duration. In the beginning, only a few trades are involved—but by the end, there could be 20. “Losing time at the beginning is the worst.”

His team has built and renovated more than 800 iconic structures across Oklahoma City, the state and beyond: Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center; Marfa Contemporary in Marfa, Texas; the Dean McGee Eye Institute; Hearts for Hearing; Chesapeake Boathouse and Finish Line Tower; a community of tiny homes for the teen homelessness-fighting nonprofit Pivot; the chapel and other buildings at Casady School and Heritage Hall’s Middle School. A diverse portfolio indeed. •