Fierce Leader

Kathleen Neset provides leadership in North Dakota’s oil and higher education industries

BY KAYLA PRASEK

When Kathleen Neset graduated from Brown University with a degree in geology, she never imagined she would carve out a successful career in the male-dominated oil industry. Yet the Washington, N.J., native has spent her entire career in the industry, including the past 36 years in North Dakota.

In her first job out of college, Neset worked as a seismologist in an oilfield in Gaylord, Mich. From there, she transitioned to Core Laboratories in Dallas, Texas, which then transferred her to its location in Casper, Wyo., and then to Bismarck, N.D., in 1979, right in the middle of the last oil boom in the state. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would end up in the oil industry,” Neset says. “When I was in college, the most conventional thing to do with a geology degree was to be an environmental scientist.”