Darin A. Zanovich - President & CEO
Darin founded Mesa Minerals Partners III, LLC (“Mesa”) with over $150 million in equity commitments from NGP Natural Resources XI, L.P. and NGP Royalty Partners I and II, L.P. Darin serves as the President and CEO of Mesa which is focused on the acquisition of large, aggregated mineral and royalty portfolios across all the major shale basins in the US with a focus on minerals and royalties in the Permian basin (Midland and Delaware) and the Haynesville shale play in North Louisiana and East Texas.
Prior to forming Mesa III, Darin served as President & CEO of Mesa Minerals Partners II (“Mesa II”). Mesa II was formed in June 2021 with equity commitments from NGP. Through a series of transactions, Mesa II fully divested its assets by January 2024, ultimately delivering its investors a 2.0x net return. Previously, Darin was the President & CEO of Mesa Minerals Partners LLC, a Quantum Energy Partners backed mineral and royalty company focused in the E. Texas Haynesville shale play. In less than a year and half the company assembled over 22,000 net royalty acres and grew cash flow to over $35 million/year The company successfully sold in December 2020 to Franco-Nevada Corporation for $135 million.
Prior to forming the Mesa franchise, Darin served on the Executive Management team at Haymaker Minerals & Royalties, LLC (“Haymaker”). Haymaker successfully sold the majority of its assets in 2018 for over $450 million in cash and stock.
Additionally, Darin has also held executive management roles with Talisman Energy and Samson Resources in his career and has over twenty-six years of experience in oil and gas operations, land and business development, as well as over seventeen years in executive management roles with various upstream companies.
Mesa Minerals Management Team
Greg Balash - COO and EVP of Engineering
As COO and EVP of Engineering for Mesa Minerals Partners III ("Mesa III"), Greg’s responsibilities include overseeing acquisition evaluation, reserves, and portfolio management and optimization for the company.
Prior to Mesa III, Greg served as COO and EVP of Engineering for Mesa Minerals Partners II (“Mesa II”). Greg also served as VP of Engineering for Mesa Minerals Partners LLC (Mesa I) where the team evaluated and underwrote thousands of acquisitions across the core of the Louisiana and Texas Haynesville Shale play.
Prior to joining Mesa I, Greg co-founded and served as President of Hyridge Energy Partners with a commitment from Denham Capital to target non-operated E&P opportunities in the Anadarko and Permian Basins.
Prior to the Hyridge Energy Partners, Greg was the Senior Acquisitions and Reservoir Engineer for Travis Peak Resources (“TPR”), an EnCap sponsored E&P company that deployed over $500 million in capital in the Anadarko and Appalachian Basins. While at TPR, Greg provided technical expertise on multi-rig developments while growing the leasehold position to over 90,000 net leasehold acres. In addition while at TPR, Greg championed a two-year mineral acquisition joint venture with Haymaker Minerals & Royalties focused in Grady and Canadian counties in the Anadarko Basin using an operator partnership model.
Josh Wiener – EVP Land & Business Development
As EVP of Land and Business Development for Mesa Minerals Partners III LLC (“Mesa III”), Josh oversees all aspects of Land and Land Administration including acquisitions, title, negotiations of purchase and sale agreements and all other contract negotiations.
Prior to Mesa II & III, Josh served at VP of Land for Mesa Minerals Partners LLC ("Mesa") in a similar capacity. At Mesa, the team successfully aggregated ~42K net royalty acres across 1300+ transactions in a 4-year time frame across the Haynesville.
Prior to Mesa, Josh served as Land Manager of Haymaker Minerals & Royalties, LLC (“Haymaker”). While at Haymaker, he managed a team of land professionals responsible for over 600 transactions throughout the Permian, Eagleford, SCOOP/STACK, Appalachia, Haynesville and Bakken plays. Josh also oversaw due diligence for Haymaker's land department for all major acquisitions and divestitures.
Michelle Massaro - CFO & EVP of Finance
As CFO and EVP of Finance for Mesa Minerals Partners III (“Mesa III”), Michelle is responsible for the company’s financial management and strategy. Prior to Mesa III, Michelle was EVP of Finance for Mesa Minerals Partners II LLC (Mesa II).
Prior to Mesa II, Michelle served as Vice President of Finance at Fortis Minerals, where she was responsible for the financial analysis of numerous transactions across the Permian and Anadarko basins. She has also held various positions in energy investment banking at both Evercore and Raymond James.
Michelle holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.