Freeman mourns the death of Douglas Schantz

Douglas N. Schantz, president of Sequent Energy Management, died tragically in New Orleans on March 5 after apparently falling accidentally into the Mississippi River.

Schantz, who served on the board of the Tulane Energy Institute, had been in New Orleans to present a gift of $25,000 to the institute as well as award two scholarships to Freeman students seeking careers in the energy industry.

Schantz, a Tulane parent, was largely responsible for establishing the close relationship that exists today between Sequent and Freeman. In 2006, Sequent began actively recruiting Freeman students for positions in the company, including its prestigious rotational program, which enables high-potential candidates to gain experience in various functional areas prior to assuming management-track positions. Over the last four years, Sequent has hired eight Freeman School graduates, more than any other energy company. Schantz also served as a guest lecturer in Freeman School classes, sharing his insights and experience with students.

Sequent also provided significant financial support for the Freeman School. Since 2007, the company has donated more than $100,000 to the Tulane Energy Institute in addition to sponsoring a scholarship program for students seeking careers in the energy industry. Six Freeman students have earned the $2,500 scholarships over the past four years.

“One of the reasons we established our relationship with the Freeman School is that we felt Freeman graduates were especially well qualified to join our company and start contributing immediately,” Schantz said in 2008. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to entice of few of those scholarship recipients to come our way following graduation.”

“Doug had the vision of building a truly outstanding long-term, mutually beneficial business-university partnership,” said James W. McFarland, executive director of the Tulane Energy Institute. “He understood that we had to engage a significant number of people from Sequent/AGL and Tulane in a broad range of activities. Doug’s leadership resulted in the creation of a partnership that we use as a role model in working with other companies. Doug generously shared his wisdom, energy, advice and time with us, but most importantly Doug was a great friend.”

Schantz joined Sequent in 2003 and oversaw the company’s growth to a top 15 North American natural gas marketing company and a leading physical trading organization. He also served on the policy committee for Sequent’s parent company, AGL Resources, which oversees all of the operations of the one of the largest distribution companies in the U.S. Prior to joining Sequent, Schantz served in management positions with Cinergy Corp., Kinder-Morgan Inc., Tenneco Energy Co. and Transco Energy Co.

Schantz graduated from the University of Virginia and earned an MBA with a concentration in finance from the University of Chicago. In 2009, he served as corporate chairman of the Houston Gulf Coast Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk to Cure Diabetes.

Schantz is survived by his wife, Lori E. Schantz, and three children, Michael B. Shantz, Brittany E. Schantz (BSM ’10) and Matthew P. Schantz. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to Texas EquuSearch. Donations may be made online at http://texasequusearch.org.