John H. Bair is President of Ascend Wealth Advisors, LLC. An avid student of market trends and history, he first began tracking a small list of individual stocks in high school. After graduating from Denison University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology, his “hands on” investment experience began later that year when, as a Master’s degree candidate in Geology at Louisiana State University, he started investing in natural resource related companies, a fascination and passion that continues today.
Awarded his Master’s degree in 1980, John spent 10 years as a petroleum geologist in Houston, Texas, initially evaluating the exploratory risk and reward potential of acreage blocks being offered in Federal lease sales in the waters off the Louisiana coast for a midsized public company. John then spent the next 9 years with a privately held independent E&P company, generating exploratory and development prospects while gaining valuable operational insights from numerous trips to wellsites throughout the Gulf coast at critical evaluation points.
The collapse of energy prices and lack of available risk capital for exploration in the late ‘80s forced many industry participants -large and small alike- to curtail operations. Drawing upon the investment knowledge and experience gained in the previous 13 years, John became an investment professional in 1989. He has held positions as a Principal and Branch Office Manager for several FINRA member firms and formerly was a General Securities Principal and Registered Options Principal prior to joining AWA in 2013.
He has earned the designation of Certified Fund Specialist (CFS) and is an Affiliate Member of the CFA Society of Cleveland and the CFA Institute. Additionally, John is an Associate Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Houston Geological Society.
