Free now from reporting to regulators and investors, retired St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. chief executive Mark Hellerstein can talk out of both sides of his mouth.
With the help, of course, of his dummies Baltimore Jackson and Professor Penwell.
Hellerstein is a master ventriloquist – a talent known by relatively few people. Most recognize him, instead, as the successful chief executive of a Denver-based oil and gas company that generated revenue of $788 million last year.
Yet ventriloquism is a passion in Hellerstein’s life. Pursuing the passion is one of the chief reasons the soon-to-be 55-year-old executive retired Friday.
“I’ve felt handcuffed from the time perspective to have the freedom to perform when I want to,” Hellerstein said. “I’ve long viewed 55 as sort of a magic age to really pursue ventriloquism.”
Not that Hellerstein has been neglecting the pursuit. He performed his act 75 times last year for birthday parties, schoolchildren, adult audiences and business groups.
He commands fees of up to $1,000 for corporate events in which he uses his business knowledge and entertainment skills for motivational speeches.
But with his schedule now wider open, he’s on a pace to do 120 performances this year as a ventriloquist or puppeteer.
Hellerstein will remain on the board of St. Mary Land & Exploration as chairman. He recently joined the board of Houston-based energy company Transocean Inc., and he plans to increase his commitment as a director of the Denver Children’s Advocacy Center.
That will still leave plenty of time to continue honing his ventriloquism skills, a hobby he picked up when he was 10.
Protected public image
But to describe his lifelong interest as a hobby would be akin to labeling legendary ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy as amateur entertainers.
Hellerstein constantly works on his act, practicing at least 45 minutes a day in front of mirrors and video cameras. He writes and rewrites scripts and dialogues for his shows. He receives coaching from nationally famous ventriloquist Sammy King.
Much of the basement of Hellerstein’s spacious Greenwood Village home serves as a museum to his art. Autographed photos from Bergen and other prominent ventriloquists share shelf space with books, record albums, magazine covers and dozens of dummies and puppets.
Despite the passion, Hellerstein worried about how his sidelight as an entertainer – particularly as a ventriloquist – would affect his public image as chief executive officer of a major energy company.
“There is a stigma to ventriloquism,” he said. “There’s a social perception that it’s silly. That’s because most ventriloquists aren’t very good. The public sees a lot of not-very-good ones and that’s why they think it’s a goofball kind of thing.”
The soft-spoken Hellerstein is considered modest and unassuming by friends and colleagues. But when asked to compare himself to other ventriloquists, he says he believes he is in the top 20 of the approximately 400 professionals in North America.
While he was never secretive about being an entertainer, neither did he encourage publicity.
Hellerstein agreed to be interviewed for this article only on the condition that it be published after his retirement from St. Mary Land & Exploration – a concession to his concern about how analysts, investors and even his own board of directors would perceive him.
He need not have worried, said energy analyst David Tameron of Wachovia Capital Markets LLC.
“When I talk to people in the financial community about his ventriloquism, there’s a little bit of laughter or disbelief at first,” Tameron said. “But ultimately, the feeling is, ‘Why not?’ He’s been successful at what he did and he’s going out on top. People tend to be very supportive.”
Hellerstein no dummy
Hellerstein went to Denver’s George Washington High School. He graduated No. 1 in his University of Colorado class with a 4.0 grade-point average. In 1974 he earned the highest score in the nation among 38,000 people who took the CPA exam.
He joined St. Mary in 1991 as chief financial officer. He was named president in 1992 and chief executive in 1995, overseeing a period in which the company went public and saw its market value soar from $80 million to $2.1 billion.
The 99-year-old company has expanded its presence from primarily in the Gulf Coast – its name stems from land holdings in the St. Mary Parish of Louisiana – to operations in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.
Hellerstein’s proudest accomplishment: producing a 22 percent compounded annual return to shareholders during his tenure as CEO. That means $10,000 invested in St. Mary stock in 1995 is now worth $124,000. The same amount invested in a broad Dow Jones index of oil and gas producers would yield $40,000.
“That’s pretty impressive,” said Tameron. “That puts them way up in the upper quartile of energy companies.”
Tameron also lauds Hellerstein for his sense of corporate ethics.
“When you look at this era of CEOs, he always did it the right way with a lot of integrity, on the other extreme from a lot of CEOs,” Tameron said.
Concern for ecosystem
Environmental groups, typically at odds with oil and gas companies, can find little to complain about in St. Mary’s operations.
When the Louisiana Cajun chapter of the Sierra Club had concerns about a St. Mary wetlands-restoration project, the company listened and adjusted the project to alleviate the concerns, said chapter chairman Harold Schoeffler.
“I really praise them for calling the Sierra Club and asking for advice,” he said. “They’re head and shoulders over the other (energy) companies.”
The legacy now transfers to new CEO Tony Best, who joined St. Mary last year as Hellerstein’s heir apparent.
“It’s a great time to leave (St. Mary),” Hellerstein said. “I’ve accomplished far more than I imagined I could.”
His big decision now is whether to accept a recent offer to perform on a cruise ship.
“I’m getting more and more (performance) offers. I’m really looking forward to this.”
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
