Changes at Laney Directional Drilling

Long-time HDD contractor Laney Directional Drilling, Humble, Texas, recently announced management changes to the company, with Pat Tobias taking over as company president for Marcus Laney.
Laney semi-retired from the company he founded in July but remains an active member of its board of directors.

Prior to joining Laney in July 2009, Tobias served as superintendent for Sheehan Pipeline Construction, superintendent and project manager for ARB Inc., and construction manager for Tellepsen Pipeline Services. From 1983 to 1993, he was owner and president of PJT Inc., a pipeline construction company based in Humble, Texas. Tobias has been in the pipeline construction industry for 50 years having been employed as a laborer, operator, purchasing agent, office manager, superintendent, construction manager, project manager and owner in his 50 years of experience.

In other news, Laney Directional Drilling named Grady Bell its vice president of business development. Bell has worked for Laney since 2003 has more than 20 years of experience in the directional drilling industry. Prior to joining Laney, he held positions at Sharewell Inc., InArc/Reading & Bates, SPIE HDI and ARB. Currently, Bell holds positions on the board of directors of both the Gulf Coast Trenchless Association and the Distribution Contractors Association (DCA). He also is the chairman of the DCA Horizontal Directional Drilling Committee and has served on the Strategic Plan Committee.