Tom Brookey was only a teenager when he got his start in the oil industry, and it all began with a wedding and a rig.  When he was fifteen, Brookey’s widowed grandmother married entrepreneur R.B. Perry, owner of the Perry Drilling Company. “After the marriage, every chance I got, I got off the tractor and went to the rig, where Terry let me learn the drilling business from his point of view,” said Brookey. “He was a very interesting man and a real high-moral guy, and taught me to do business in a moral way.” From his mentor, Brookey learned some valuable lessons about the business. “He taught me that quality work always pays off, and will allow you stay in business for many years.”

That advice has certainly stood the test of time. Today, Brookey is the president and owner of MASI Technologies, based in Edmond, Oklahoma. His company uses cutting-edge technology to make oil drilling more efficient by saving time, cutting losses, and reducing risk.

His path to success shows a knack for responding creatively to life’s curveballs. Brookey enrolled in junior college while continuing to work; then, because of the oil crisis, he was unable to find a job on the oil rig. Instead, he made a deal with a supply company to furnish pipe lines for irrigation wells. “I got a trencher and a truck, and I would dig trenches and put in pipe lines for the irrigation wells, which got me interested in hydraulics,” said Brookey.

After a brief stint in the Army during the draft, Brookey revived his newfound interest and enrolled as a full-time student at Texas Tech University to study civil engineering. But Brookey didn’t finish his degree; instead, he took an opportunity to work at Humble Oil and Refining Company, which later consolidated with Standard Oil to form Exxon. “During all that time, I never lost my love of drilling. I had some friends in the oil business who convinced me to interview with Humble Oil,” said Brookey. “After a few months, Humble called and offered me a job in West Texas working on the rigs. I couldn’t turn that down, so I left school to work at Humble, with the idea that I would come back and finish my education later, which I did… just not back at school.”

Brookey’s career at Exxon confirmed his decision to make a career in the drilling industry, which would culminate in his creation of MASI Technologies. “The thing that was so attractive was that they were drilling wells in West Texas—which were some of the deepest wells in the world—and they were using their own drilling rigs,” said Brookey. “It was a hands-on learning experience. I got to see the biggest rigs in the world and work on the most challenging wells.”

After finishing at Exxon and taking a few other jobs in the field, Brookey started MASI Technologies, which provides specialty drilling fluid solutions to the oil and gas markets using aphron technology. In layman’s terms, drilling fluids are synthetic liquids that are essential to the oil drilling process; they cool the drill, keep debris to a minimum, and prevent natural fluids from leaking into wells. MASI specializes in drilling fluids containing aphrons—microscopic bubbles with a nitrogen core—which make the drilling more effective. The bubbles form organically and are biodegradable, so they make Brookey’s product a greener alternative to less sophisticated drilling fluids.

The path wasn’t easy, but Brookey was able to use his experience and education to succeed independently in the industry he fell in love with years ago. Now a successful entrepreneur, Brookey owes much of his success to advice from his father.  “My father always told me to learn all you can from others, without just copying them,” said Brookey. “He’d tell me that what you do should come from your own imagination. And that’s exactly what I did.”