A Richardson-native entrepreneur was one of eight recipients of a Distinguished Alumni Award at the 2022 UT Dallas Awards Gala on Feb. 12.

Bonnie Shea, BS’84, founder and CEO of Urban Oil and Gas Group LLC, earned her Bachelor of Accounting from the Naveen Jindal School of Management while starting her career in the petroleum field.

As a student working 30-to-35-hour weeks at Petrus Oil Company, Shea said her JSOM accounting classes reinforced what she was learning in the field.

“I feel like the perspective was from a working student environment,” she said.

One of her most memorable classes was petroleum accounting because of the real-world experience her professor shared, Shea said.

She said she remembers her classes being structured in a way that allowed her to put what she was taught in context with her work, as opposed to only being taught out of a book.

“I connected with that,” she said. “I could actually reason through how I could deal with that in the industry.”

After graduation, Shea’s data-entry role at Petrus Oil Co. eventually grew into her becoming controller of the company.

In 1989, Shea started as Chief Financial Officer at Merit Energy when the company opened and later became president. At Merit, she rounded out her accounting background with entrepreneurial skills.

“It was truly learning, not just all of the accounting and building up from one side of the business, but the whole entire business from day one,” she said.

Shea left Merit Energy to spend more time with her kids in 2005. However, looking for an office in historic downtown Plano turned into another business venture for Shea.

At the time, the area did not have much development other than antique stores and historical buildings. It was missing a place for families to gather, which is where the concept of Urban Crust came from, she said.

The three-story pizza restaurant and rooftop ice bar officially opened its doors in 2009.

“In the beginning, it was like we’d opened a disco or something,” Shea said. “It was like Downtown Plano had never seen anything that had this much excitement.”

Following the success of Urban Crust, Shea and her husband, Nathan, later opened Urban Rio Cantina & Grill, Urban Seafood Company and Rooftop Event Spot — all in Downtown Plano.

“(Urban Crust) really started to bring the idea that you can take one of these antique buildings, preserve it and maintain it, but also create something new and different,” Shea said.

Also in 2009, Shea returned to the oil and gas field and founded Urban Oil and Gas Group, an investment management firm, where she remains CEO.

“Kind of like riding a bike, it just came back,” she said.

Outside of her business ventures, Shea served as director and chairman of the Historic Downtown Plano Association and as director for the Downtown Plano Arts and Heritage Foundation.

Shea said she found success throughout her career where she could utilize her personal strengths. She encourages current students to “find what makes them tick.”

“Work is about getting into wherever it is that you are now skilled to do and then dive into it and attack it,” she said.