• Blake Van Patten is a Principal & Co-Founder of Palace Road Partners.

    Prior to founding Palace Road, Blake was an investment banker at Lazard, advising corporate clients in the diversified industrials and chemicals space on strategy, M&A, and capital raising. Blake was previously an A&D reservoir engineer with Cimarex Energy, where he evaluated and closed approximately $2.0 billion in footprint growth opportunities. He began his career at Cimarex where he served as an asset reservoir engineer overseeing 50,000 acres in New Mexico and Texas.

    Blake graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa and received his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Blake holds his Professional Engineering licensure in the state of Texas.

  • Payton Porter is a Principal & Co-Founder of Palace Road Partners.

    Prior to founding Palace Road, Payton was an investment team Vice President at Indigena Capital where he led investment origination, evaluation, negotiation, and execution across oil and gas, infrastructure, agriculture, and real estate industry verticals. Payton was previously a corporate finance and development professional with Vaquero Midstream. He began his career with BB&T Capital Markets covering industrial services on the equities desk.

    Payton graduated from the University of Richmond with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration concentrating in Finance and Economics and is a Master of Science in Legal Studies candidate at Cornell Law School.

  • Prior to joining Palace Road, DJ was the Vice President of Business Development at Cimarex Energy from 2004 to 2022. DJ's 25+ years of industry experience span roles in land, origination, deal negotiation, and transaction execution. He has negotiated and closed over 35 transactions totaling +$3.0 billion in aggregate value with corporate counterparties that include Chevron, Chesapeake, Pioneer, Parsley, Devon, Mach, and Merit, as well as multiple private equity firms and other "off-market" counterparties. DJ began his career in the land group with Aspect Resources.

    DJ graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.

  • Prior to joining Palace Road, Dan was the Integration Manager at Coterra Energy, where he oversaw the integration of Cimarex Energy and Cabot Oil and Gas. Previously, Dan worked in the corporate finance and strategy group at Cimarex Energy where he was responsible for corporate financial modeling, strategy, and deal evaluation. Dan has also worked in an A&D role at Cimarex Energy, a private equity role at NextGen Growth Partners, and operations and reservoir engineering roles at Newfield Exploration.

    Dan graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering and from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a Master of Business Administration degree, concentrating in Econometrics and Statistics.