Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Alie Pruner: Partner, Board Director, and Chief Financial Officer of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., an energy investment bank. Welcome to Women Mean Business, Alie.

Alie: Oh, thanks so much, Leisa. Thanks for having me.

Leisa: I’m guessing, growing up, you did not imagine that you would be sitting here at this white marble table doing what you’re doing today.

Alie: CFO of an energy investment bank downtown in Houston, TX? You’re probably right.

Leisa: Tell us your story of how you got here.

Alie: Well, it was a great route. My father is an artist on the Upper West Side of New York, so certainly, he did not groom me to become an investment banker, but I’m sure he’s certainly happy that I am. Immediately prior to this job I was publisher of World Oil Magazine, a technical journal in the energy space. I started out my career at Shearson Lehman Brothers in New York in the early 80s, and there I worked on the corporate side and was Vice President of Government Relations for the investment bank (

Leisa: Oh, wow). And then I worked for an energy company. My husband is in the energy industry, so back then I had the foresight knowing I’ll probably end up in an energy city and grateful that we have. In the mid-90s when we moved down to Houston, I worked for an EMP company and Goldman Sachs was our investment banker, and got the good fortune to get to know Bobby Tudor.

2006, Bobby approached me, we had coffee, and he said, ‘would you like to help me build an energy investment bank?’ And I said, ‘Bobby, I’d follow you into a fire.’ So, here we are. And it has not been a fire, but it’s been a great opportunity.

Leisa: So how was it to start this company?

Alie: Good; it was exciting. It was just the two of us working in his pool house and-

Leisa: I’ve been there, it’s beautiful. I mean, it was not a struggle, it’s beautiful.

Alie: It was not a struggle, its beautiful I will grant you that. And we had the good fortune of combining with Pickering Energy Partners, which is a strong technical research firm. And shortly thereafter, Maynard Holt, whose a dynamo, joined us and is Co-President of the firm with Dan Pickering, and just been going from there. The good news is we’ve been really lucky and able to hire folks who are just fabulous; the best and the brightest in the business, I would say. We’ve got 180 employees now, worldwide.

Leisa: Wow, thank you very much for being here.

Alie: Well, thanks so much, Leisa, for having me.

Leisa: There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me at contentactive.com or follow me on Twitter @lhnelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.