Charles D. Davidson MS’80: Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Charles D. Davidson MS’80 is a partner at Quantum Capital Group, a private equity firm based in Houston and has more than 50 years of experience in the energy industry. Previously, he was chairman of the board of Noble Energy, having also served as its CEO from 2000 to 2014.

Before joining Noble Energy, Davidson was chairman, president and CEO of Vastar Resources Inc., a publicly owned subsidiary of ARCO which merged with BP in 2000. Prior to the formation of Vastar, he held a number of engineering, operations and executive assignments at ARCO.

Davidson is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the All-American Wildcatters. He has served in various positions in numerous professional, industry and community organizations, including the Independent Petroleum Association of America, American Exploration & Production Council, Gas Technology Institute, National Petroleum Council, Spindletop International, Sam Houston Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Performing Arts Houston, the Houston Food Bank and the Houston and Southwest Region boards of the American Heart Association. He also currently serves as a director of the Loews Corp.

Davidson holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from UT Dallas. He and his wife, Nancy Gundy Davidson BS’80, were named Naveen Jindal School of Management Distinguished Alumni in 2002 and UT Dallas Distinguished Alumni in 2008.

In 2011, the couple joined with Lifetime Achievement Award winner Naveen Jindal MBA’92 to donate $30 million the Naveen Jindal School of Management, having already established four endowed faculty research positions in the school in 2006 and supported the Jindal School building’s construction in 2001. In 2016, the couple contributed $15 million toward the construction of the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas, which opened in fall 2017.