Richard Lionberger has served as an officer and company executive for public and private companies with operations in the United States, and internationally. His business experience includes management functions in corporations, as well as operating his own law firm.

Corporate Business Experience

Richard Lionberger has decades of experience as a company executive in both public and private companies. In his roles as vice president and corporate secretary, as well as serving as the companies’ general counsel he was tasked with both business and legal responsibilities, including the following:

He served as Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., between 1992 and 1998. At the time the company was the world’s largest owner and operator of offshore drilling vessels, with operations worldwide. During his tenure there, the company had its initial public offering, as well as other public debt and equity offerings, in which Richard represented the company as both an officer and an attorney.

He also served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of National-Oilwell, Inc. in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., in 1998 and 1999. The company, now known as National Oilwell Varco, Inc., is a manufacturer and distributor of oil and gas drilling and production equipment with worldwide scope. During his tenure he was involved as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary in all public company matters.

For two years during the mid-eighties Richard served as Vice President – Contracts and Marketing of Diamond M Company, in Houston, Texas, U.S. A., where he had business and commercial responsibility for marketing the company’s inland barge, jackup, and semi-submersible drilling rigs worldwide. His responsibilities included negotiating drilling contracts with oil companies, vessel charters with the operators of offshore supply vessels and tugs, and purchase and sale contracts. He also set the company’s marketing strategy and commercial structure for dayrate, footage, and turnkey drilling.

In the early eighties Richard served as Vice President – Legal of Diamond M Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kaneb Services, Inc., which was the owner and operator of inland barge rigs, jackups, semi-submersibles, platform rigs, and a drillship. The company had operations worldwide, including in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, inland waterways of Louisiana, offshore California and Alaska, Chile, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Zaire, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. During his tenure, in addition to legal responsibilities for the company’s contracts, he established business structures in Nigeria (including establishing a joint venture company with Nigerian citizens), Ivory Coast, Australia, Chile, Argentina, and Zaire.

Small Business Experience

Richard has owned and successfully operated his law firm as a small business from 1985 to 1992 and from 2001 to the present. That background gives him insight into the particular needs and concerns of small business owners as well as large corporations.

For a more detailed description of Richard Lionberger’s experience and professional associations, download his Curriculum Vitae.