Veteran's Ranch

Baron Lukas

Baron Lukas

A board member and board advisor, senior executive leader, advisor, coach, and retired Marine Corps Colonel, Baron has 43 years of leadership, management, teaching, coaching, and mentoring experience.
His professional career spans a diverse spectrum of positions: fighter pilot, instructor, strategist, intelligence officer, professor, commander, and finally, business executive, entrepreneur, board member, and advisor. Baron is a Managing Director at ExecHQ, offering corporate governance, strategy and leadership development, and executive coaching services. He also serves on ExecHQ’s advisory board.
Baron’s long history of successful business and military leadership positions gives him a unique perspective that blends the best practices of both worlds. A native of Germany, Baron, is bilingual (English and German) and holds two master’s degrees.
Civilian Career:- Upon retirement from the military in 2007, Baron joined Western Commerce Group as Managing Director. Western Commerce Group is a regional M&A investment banking, private equity, wealth management, and consulting group based in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2008, Baron was asked to join HSC as its COO. HSC is a privately held oilfield, industrial, and mining supply, services, and manufacturing company with more than 20 locations nationwide. While at HSC, Baron advised and presented to the Board of Managers. Baron stayed with HSC until August of 2014 when he founded Vital Strategies Management Consulting. Vital Strategies was an advisory, coaching, and keynote speaking firm specializing in corporate governance, strategy development and execution, and leadership development. Because of his professional engagement as an advisor for ELS, Baron was asked to join their leadership team as CEO and owner in April of 2016. Based in Abilene, Texas, ELS is a sales, distribution, engineering, and service company for advanced nanoparticle technologies for the oil and gas industry. Baron stood up ELS’s board of managers and introduced independent managers to the company. Baron left ELS in August of 2019 and joined ExecHQ in November of 2019. Concurrently, Baron was asked to join BPS Technologies, serving as Board Member, Strategic Advisor, Chief Governance Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and President. Baron stood up and led the boards of BPS Technology, BPS Agriculture, BPS O&G, and Shotwell Hydrogenics. BPS Technology and its subsidiary companies develop and commercialize advanced chemical technologies that enhance chemistries in multiple industries. Baron left BPS Technologies in November of 2021 and rejoined ExecHQ. Within ExecHQ, Baron provides consulting services in strategy development, executive and leadership coaching, corporate governance, and succession planning. He is also a Program Chair for ExecHQ MULTIPLE, a pretransaction readiness program that prepares lower middle market companies for a sell-side transaction or capital raise by increasing their valuations through a focused program that improves the company’s multiple, and the Chair for the ExecHQ Chief of Staff as a Service Advisory Program.
Military Career:- Baron spent 27 years as a commissioned officer and fighter pilot in the U.S. Marines. He served in numerous command, operational, training, staff, and intelligence positions. These included command of a F/A-18 and KC-130 aircraft group, two graduate-level teaching positions (specializing in leadership and strategic planning), a diplomatic and intelligence position, and a TOPGUN-trained flight and tactics instructor. He also served as one of the Marine Corps’ primary mission planners and strike leaders for Operation Desert Storm, flying the F/A-18 Hornet.
Personal Life:- Baron and his wife, Tanya, an award-winning author, live on a small ranch just west of Fort Worth, Texas. They enjoy international travel, activities involving the great outdoors, and spending time with each other and their beloved canine, equine, and feline companions (not to mention a few Belted Galloway beef cattle). Baron and Tanya have three adult children and two grandchildren who are scattered across the globe.