Evolved engineer, pivotal financial leader 

As Jeff Sheets, ChE’80, reflects on his rise to chief financial officer of ConocoPhillips, one of the world’s largest independent oil exploration and production companies, he credits the mindset that pushed him to stretch — and it’s the same advice he shares with today’s talent. “When an opportunity outside your comfort zone comes along, keep an open mind and take it as a chance to discover what you’re truly capable of,” he says. 
 
Sheets’ mindset developed long before the boardroom. Growing up primarily in St. Louis, he got his first taste of leadership as a McDonald’s supervisor in high school. As he looked ahead to college, affordability and strong career prospects were key.  
 
His affinity for science led him into chemical engineering and to Missouri S&T (then UMR), which he found large enough to challenge him, yet small enough for valuable involvement. “In Delta Tau Delta, I learned organizational leadership—first as treasurer, then president,” he says.   
 
Another plus for choosing S&T was that his future wife, Pat (Klug), ChE ’80 — whom he’d known since the sixth grade — also selected the school. Following a summer job with Amoco in Texas and graduation from S&T, Sheets launched his career at Phillips Petroleum in Houston as a process engineer. Pat went to work for Bechtel, and they married in 1981. 
 
At Phillips, the momentum never slowed. After multiple engineering assignments and re-locations, including a stint in Emden, Germany, Sheets moved into marketing to sell natural gas. When the oil and gas market plummeted in 1986, he pivoted again, earning an MBA through the University of Houston’s night program as Pat stepped back from her career to raise their two sons. Sheets soon ventured into new territory when the company moved him into the Treasury group as staff finance director, where he discovered that familiar analytical principles could be applied in new ways.  
 
“Engineering and finance are very similar — both solve problems with a structured approach to data analysis,” he says. “But the skill that advanced my career the most, and one engineers often struggle with, was learning to communicate complicated ideas simply.” 

In 1993, Sheets moved to Stavanger, Norway, to manage Phillips’ local finance operations, a cultural and leadership experience he calls the biggest challenge of his career. He returned to Houston as assistant treasurer, became vice president and treasurer in 2000, and provided steady leadership through the 2002 Phillips–Conoco merger. 

During the 2008 global financial crisis, Sheets was promoted to senior vice president of planning and strategy, tasked with selling assets in an unpredictable market. From there, he rose to CFO and helped launch the downstream spin‑off of Phillips 66, positioning ConocoPhillips as the world’s largest independent oil exploration and production company at the time. 

After 35 years of embracing new opportunities, Sheets retired in 2016. Today, he lends his financial expertise to Missouri S&T’s Board of Trustees and to the boards of SLB, Chord Energy and Westlake Corporation. 

For nearly four decades, the Sheets’ have supported Missouri S&T, making major gifts to Bertelsmeyer Hall, the Havener Arrival Complex and the new academic readiness summer program for first‑year students. Sheets was inducted into the Academy of Chemical Engineers in 2011 and received an Award of Professional Distinction in 2012. Jeff and Pat are also members of the Order of the Golden Shillelagh.  

“It’s exciting to see the possibility thinking at Missouri S&T,” he says. “People across the energy industry are noticing. S&T’s stretch into new disciplines is powerful.”