FOUNDING PARTNER & MANAGING PARTNER

Barton Irby is a Founding Partner of Westwind and leads the firm’s technical evaluations, internal portfolio analysis, and strategic planning efforts. Prior to Westwind, Barton co-founded Fortress Energy Partners, where he led the engineering organization, including reservoir and operating teams, and supported the deployment of over $300 million into mineral, royalty, and working interest assets across multiple U.S. basins.

Previously, Barton led reservoir engineering at Arroyo Resources, evaluating producing and non-producing assets across major shale basins and contributing to more than $125 million in acquisitions. Following Arroyo’s merger with EnCap-backed Piedra Resources, he played a key role in building the Rock River Minerals portfolio and developing an operated position in the Permian Basin. Across these efforts, the team acquired over 7,500 net royalty acres, 10,000 operated acres, and deployed approximately $400 million in equity investments through ground-level sourcing.

Barton holds a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering from Texas Tech University.