Swift Energy has successfully navigated the tumultuous industry cycles of the past three decades under the leadership of a management team that strives to ethically balance stakeholder interests at all times. From its roots, Swift Energy’s culture has emphasized balance, reflecting the values of its principal founder, the late A. Earl Swift, who believed that successful organizations must balance authoritative leadership with individual initiative and group participation. In 1988, Mr. Swift articulated his vision for the desired organizational culture at Swift: to create a corporate environment that encourages individual initiative and creativity; to maintain flexibility and teamwork by promoting open communication across disciplinary boundaries and between functional areas; and to uphold a formal organizational structure and a system of policies and procedures that balance clear lines of authority with an innovative, participatory corporate culture. This balance has served Swift well by providing the creativity and teamwork needed to respond quickly to changes in the competitive environment, while guaranteeing a measure of control and transparency within a system of checks and balances.

In making appointments to its management team, Swift follows a two-fold policy of (1) promoting from within those employees who have been instrumental in past successes and (2) recruiting new staff with exemplary industry experience in areas critical to the company’s future plans for growth. Swift's current officers are presented elsewhere in this web site (see officers).

Selection of Board of Directors

For many years, the majority of Swift’s Board of Directors has been comprised of outside independent directors. Swift's current directors are presented elsewhere in this web site (see directors).

Accountability Controls

Long before the nation’s emphasis on corporate accountability with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, Swift had controls in place that exemplify the company’s belief in openness and ethical conduct.

Swift’s corporate controls begin with its current strategic plan, which is closely intertwined with the control environment created by management. A review of the company’s progress in fulfilling its strategic plan is presented to the Board of Directors each year.

The strategic plan’s implementation begins with the budgeting process, which is overseen by a committee chaired by the chief operating officer and comprised of representatives from appropriate contributing departments. The Budget Committee—with input from the entire executive management team—sets the direction of the budgeting process by determining the basic parameters that will guide the development of each department’s annual budget.

The Budget Committee creates capital expenditure scenarios and financial outlooks using project rankings created by various asset teams. Ultimately, the committee presents its top scenarios to the board for final consideration, and during the fourth quarter of each year, the board approves one scenario as the consolidated budget for the following year. Once a budget is approved, individual projects within the budget undergo an "authority for expenditure" (AFE) approval process that includes both operating and financial reviews. The Board follows the process throughout the year, constantly reviewing, along with management, the implementation and/or changes in the project plans and authorizing any budget revisions required to cover them.  

Altogether, the AFE approval process, the annual budget, and the strategic plan help set the company’s basic direction and tone and assist in structuring many of Swift’s major expenditure controls.

General information about Swift’s corporate governance is available in the corporate governance section of the company’s web site.