Meet the Founder

Alex Cranberg — Chairman, Aspect Holdings, LLC

Mr. Cranberg is Chairman of Aspect Holdings, LLC. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Texas at Austin in 1977 with a BS in Petroleum Engineering and received an MBA from Stanford University in 1981. After leading General Atlantic Partners’ oil and gas investment activity from 1981-1992, Mr. Cranberg founded Aspect Energy. Aspect has drilled over 700 exploration wells and made numerous oil and gas discoveries in Texas and Louisiana, Belize, Peru, Hungary, and Kurdistan. Aspect applies its exploration expertise as well for the discovery and development of helium and geothermal resources. Aspect has founded numerous venture technology-driven oilfield service companies, the leading U.S. potash producer, a wind power developer and a prominent firm in the cancer drug discovery space.

Mr. Cranberg was named to the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Hall of Fame in 2010 and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in November 2016.

Mr. Cranberg served on The University of Texas System Board of Regents for 6 years until 2017. While on the Board of Regents he served as the founding Chair of the UT System Lands Advisory Board which oversees the System’s vast West Texas oil and land holdings. He also served as Chairman of the Health Affairs Committee of the Board.

Mr. Cranberg has been active in education philanthropy, governance, and policy advocacy. He founded the Alliance for Choice in Education, which has provided over $100 million in scholarship support for children from low-income families to attend private K-12 schools. Mr. Cranberg created and funded the Horace Mann Scholarship Challenge, whereby he committed to fund the college education of the 600 attendees of the public inner city Horace Mann Middle Schools. He also has served on various boards of the national school choice organization, Alliance for School Choice, and on the Board of Trustees of Metropolitan State College of Denver. Alex and his wife Cathy have three daughters and one son and live in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.