Rick Mullins, President and Chairman
Rick is the President and Chairman of Guardian Oil & Gas, Inc. and a co-founder of the company. Rick grew up in El Paso before earning his undergraduate accounting degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene. He started his professional career in 1986 as an accounting instructor at a small business college in Lubbock, Texas. In 1988, Rick accepted the position of revenue agent in the Dallas District of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) where he completed the IRS courses in basic and advanced individual income taxation, basic, intermediate, and advanced corporate taxation, and oil & gas taxation. It was at the IRS that Rick started his oil and gas career by examining federal income tax returns reporting income from oil and gas working and royalty interests.

In late 1989, Rick left the IRS to attend law school at the University of Houston. He selected the University of Houston for its combined reputation in oil and gas law and the law of federal taxation. After completing his legal course work in 1992, Rick accepted a position in the energy industry segment of Ernst & Young, LLP (a "Big Four" public accounting firm) in Houston. While at Ernst & Young, Rick started his course work for a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) and passed the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. Rick's public accounting experience included extensive work with major and large independent oil and gas companies, international service companies, small exploration and production companies, and individual and institutional investors in oil and gas investments.

In late 1994, Rick left Ernst & Young, completed his MBA, and practiced law for a short time before accepting a position as an author and technical editor with the Thomson Legal & Regulatory Group - Practitioners Publishing Company (PPC) in Fort Worth. While at PPC, Rick was the managing editor for guides on dealing with the IRS and was the co-author of books on retirement planning and basic estate planning. While still working at PPC in July of 1996, Rick co-founded Mullins & White Energy, Inc. Rick left PPC in 2000 to devote all of his attention to Mullins & White Energy, Inc., which merged into Mullins & White Exploration, Inc. on December 31, 2006 and into Guardian Oil & Gas, Inc. on January 1, 2009. Rick is also the chief executive officer of M&W Financial, Inc. (an oil and gas direct participation program brokerage firm), president of Guardian Land and Commercial Real Property, Inc. (a real estate investment and management company), and president of Guardian Ventures, Inc. (the parent company of Guardian Oil & Gas, M&W Financial, Inc., and Guardian Land and Commercial Real Property, Inc).

Rick has continued his education with course work in geology, petrophysics, and geophysics as well as in oil and gas law and federal income taxation. Rick is an associate member of the American Association of Professional Landmen and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, American Bar Association (ABA), and the Texas Bar Association. Rick is on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Energy Law and is a member of several committees in the Business, Energy, Real Property and Taxation Sections of the ABA. In addition, he is a member of the NASD's Direct Participation Program Exam Review Committee. Since 1988 he has been married to Theresa Mullins and together they have had five children. return to top

Theresa Mullins, Vice President
Theresa is the Vice President of Guardian Oil & Gas, Inc. She grew up in Lubbock, Texas and graduated from Texas Tech University with her undergraduate degree in business. She began her career in oil and gas at the Yuma Companies in Houston. At Yuma, Theresa was responsible for contract and credit administration including the preparation of term and spot sales contracts. After Torch Energy acquired Yuma Gas, Theresa became a gas-marketing accountant responsible for receivables and payables. In 1995, Theresa accepted a position with Union Pacific Resources (UPR) in Fort Worth. At UPR, Theresa worked in the revenue department and broadened her gas marketing expertise.

In July 1996, Theresa’s husband, Rick, co-founded Mullins & White Energy, Inc., which merged into Mullins & White Exploration, Inc on December 31, 2006 and into Guardian Oil & Gas on January 1, 2008. Theresa left UPR in late 1996 to devote all of her attention to Mullins & White. Theresa is also vice-president and secretary/treasurer of Guardian Land and Commercial Real Property, Inc. and Guardian Ventures, Inc. Theresa has continued her education in accounting at the University of North Texas. She is an active volunteer in her community, has been married to Rick since 1988, and together they have had five children. return to top

Shannon McPearson, Controller
Shannon is the Controller of Guardian Oil & Gas, Inc. She grew up in Houston and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston with a double major in accounting and finance. She is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Shannon began her career at Enron Oil and Gas as a revenue accountant and quickly moved to the energy trading division of Enron North America as a portfolio accountant.  After the collapse of Enron, she continued her career in energy trading with UBS Warburg, who acquired the power and gas trading division of Enron North America. She was responsible for daily P&L reporting for the foreign exchange and Nymex financial traders. In 2003, Shannon accepted a temporary assignment to relocate the Houston office to Stamford, CT where UBS is headquartered. After six months, Shannon returned to Houston and worked for Cinergy Marketing & Trading, who was eventually bought out by Fortis Bank.  She was the lead accountant for financial reporting and controls and prepared the monthly financial statements, audit schedules, quarterly forecasts, as well as assisting in preparing the yearly budget.

Shannon joined Mullins & White Exploration, Inc. in September 2007. She is married with one son and currently resides in Keller, TX. return to top

Rob Popovitch, Senior Counsel
Rob is Senior Counsel for Guardian Oil & Gas, Inc. Rob is an attorney admitted to practice law in Tennessee and in the United States Tax Court. He is a licensed CPA and also holds the ABV (Accredited in Business Valuation) credential. Rob has the Certified Financial Planner designation as well. Rob received a BA in Business Administration from Rhodes College in 1985. He earned his law degree in 1988 from the University of Memphis School of Law, where he was a member of the law review. In 1988, Rob accepted a full scholarship and graduate fellowship in Southern Methodist University’s Finance Department where he did research in corporate finance. Rob earned an MBA at SMU in 1989, where he was named the Dresser Foundation Scholar.

Rob’s early work experience includes serving as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Robert F. Fussell, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge for Arkansas (now retired) and as an associate in the corporate finance groups (reorganization, M&A, and litigation services) of Coopers & Lybrand, LLP (now PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP). At C&L he consulted on the financial and tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and the Chapter 11 reorganizations of large companies. He then served as in-house legal counsel for a financial services firm and practiced tax, estate and trust law in a boutique wealth management consultancy with an emphasis on multigenerational structures for high-net-worth business owners and executives.

In 1996, Rob joined Thomson’s (now Thomson Reuters) legal and regulatory publishing group, a leading publisher of reference guides for tax and accounting professionals. He was an author and senior editor for Thomson Reuter’s PPC imprint. He is the author of PPC’s Guide to Buy/Sell Agreements, which is now in its twelfth edition, and is co-author of PPC’s Guide to Wealth Protection Strategies, the sixth and final edition of which was published in 2003 as part of Thomson-PPC’s planning guide series for CPAs. He has authored many articles on tax and financial planning subjects, primarily aimed at the CPA audience.

During his tenure at Thomson Reuters, Rob maintained a consulting practice focusing on design and implementation of wealth preservation structures for the owners of closely held businesses. He also was an outside advisor to Arthur Andersen’s national Family Wealth Planning Group from 1998 - 2003 and a Director at Plexus Financial from 2003 – 2005. Rob, his wife Dawn, and their daughter reside in Southlake, Texas. return to top