Trading rigs and rock samples for spreadsheets and shareholder battles, Mark Viviano, CFA from Kimmeridge walks through how he stumbled into energy investing, why shale rewired valuation thinking, and how the sector managed to grow like crazy while lighting free cash flow on fire. The convo hits consolidation, why big institutions mostly hide in the top names, and why activism plus a technical bench might be the only way to get boards to move faster. Click here to watch a video of this episode. Join the conversation shaping the future of energy. Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward. Apply today at collide.io Click here to view the episode transcript. 00:00 Safe harbor and why this convo exists 01:15 Mark’s path into investing 03:05 Building credentials and breaking into research 05:16 Landing on the energy team 08:03 Conventional to shale and valuation shifts 13:18 The negative free cash flow era 16:29 Why energy shrank inside the S&P 17:24 Too many public E&Ps and consolidation 20:18 Institutions hug the biggest names 23:06 Expertise drain and small caps struggle 28:54 Leaving Wellington and joining Kimmeridge 32:03 Why activism matters in energy 37:05 Timing the move into 2020 40:10 How activism fits the sector today 47:57 Portfolio quality over top down labels 57:39 Gas, power, and AI data center demand 01:01:11 New revenue streams and the next cycle https://twitter.com/collide_io https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io https://www.facebook.com/collide.io https://www.instagram.com/collide.io https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters