Ian Denholm, the co-founder and CEO of Conquistador Capital represents a striking example of what one may call socially responsible entrepreneurship—one that puts ethics above profits.
Ian C. Denholm Midland Texas
Ian C. Denholm, an alumnus of Texas Tech University, served first as the Director of Finance and then as the Chief Accounting Officer during his 6-year tenure with ProPetro Holding Corp. Ian’s time at ProPetro equipped him with the right sort of experience and expertise so he decided to launch his own company, Conquistador Capital. That this is already evident in the success that Conquistador has become in the relatively short time, it has been in operation.
Denholm describes his company profile as an Entrepreneur & Investor offering financial support and accounting duties to start-ups and businesses at the early stages of their operation. However, Conquistador sets itself apart from other financial management services in that it pairs its finance and accounting service with ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) services.
Ian explains that they decided to pair these two services since he believes that ESG initiatives will come to play an important role for businesses in the coming years as we usher into the new era of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). As such, it is important for early-stage companies to plan their ESG initiatives from the very start and include them in their overall strategy for growth and expansion.
This way, the companies will be able to make the right financial decisions as to where to spend their money to achieve great ROI as also where to cut corners—and all this while fulfilling their commitment to the environment and to society at large by making their businesses green and sustainable ones.
Conquistador Capital decided to pair the two otherwise different services is also a result of Ian’s own firm belief that environmentally sustainable initiatives can help businesses become sustainable and that the former never affect the profit aspect of a business negatively.
This is why, Ian remarks, Conquistador is not only about profit. At the same time, it is not focused solely on ESG either. Instead, he has conceived the company as being a marriage of the two in a way that it can prove that responsible behavior on the part of a business never comes in the way of profit. Ian goes on to remark that this very same principle of putting ethics above profits regulates all the internal operations of his own company as well and also in the way it connects and sustains relationships with its clients.
The responsible and visionary aspects of Ian’s characters also become evident in the way he defines how he sees and approaches technology and the overall fast-changing technological landscape. In a recent interview, the young and successful entrepreneur gave voice to his belief that technology can pave the way for a better world. It can source cheap and sustainable energy to the poor and underserved populations of the world.
At the same time, Ian maintained that we ought to stay clear of the many potentially harmful ways that technology is used currently. Snapchats, Instagram Reels, Tiktoks, and the like, Ian remarks, only make for so much noise. They only serve as distractions and make us lose focus. This is why we ought to keep this sort of thing at arm’s length to stay productive and healthy—both in our personal and professional lives, Ian signs off saying.