Inside Atlas Oil’s Culture with President Michael Evans

Atlas Oil’s growth, from a single delivery truck to one of the country’s largest fuel distributors, has always been powered by its culture. Teams take pride in their work and find creative, collaborative ways to deliver for customers, no matter how big or small the job.

Few people have lived that culture more fully than Michael Evans, Atlas Oil’s president and one of its longest-tenured leaders. Over three decades with Atlas, Michael has seen the industry through just about every kind of disruption. What has kept the company steady, he says, is this culture: staying focused on the customer, supporting the team around you, and solving the problem in front of you.

We recently sat down with Michael to hear about his journey at Atlas Oil, the culture that defines the company, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.

You joined Atlas in 1996, nearly thirty years ago. That kind of tenure is rare these days. Can you walk us through your trajectory with the company, and what’s kept you excited about the work over all that time?

I joined Atlas as assistant to the president, Sam Simon. We used to joke that I took over his “night job.” The business was growing quickly, and he needed help managing different divisions, overseeing real estate development, and looking into acquisitions. I stepped into a jack-of-all-trades role, which gave me the chance to get hands-on with every corner of the business.

What stood out to me early—and still excites me today—is how entrepreneurial the culture is. When you’re working at Atlas, you’ll hear 100 big ideas a day, many of them coming directly from Sam. Our job as a team is to figure out which ones you can really do something with.

When you get the chance to dig into one of those ideas or projects, you can make a real difference. It’s what keeps Atlas such an exciting place to be. No two days look quite the same.

Atlas wasn’t your first job in the oil and gas industry. What stood out to you about the company compared to the rest of the industry?

It was clear to me from day one that Atlas had a very strong code of ethics. And that was in the early days, before the company had formally written down its values. Even during those high-growth years, there was a clear understanding that business had to be done the right way, or it wouldn’t be done at all.

In this industry, there are opportunities to cut corners, chase easy money, or take shortcuts. In my thirty years with the company, that has never been acceptable at Atlas. We hold ourselves not only to high regulatory and quality standards, but also to dealing honestly and transparently with our partners and customers. That means we’ll pass on business that doesn’t align with our values, and that’s something we’ve done more than once over the years.

As the company grew, we had the opportunity to formally codify Atlas’s core values, and today they’re part of how every new team member is introduced to the company. But even before they were written down, you could tell that strong ethical code was part of the DNA of the business from the start.

After thirty years with the company, you’ve probably seen your fair share of mistakes. How does Atlas approach those moments when things don’t go as planned?

Our founder and owner, Sam, is the first to say he’s made more mistakes than anyone else in the business. Mistakes are how you learn. If you’re never making any, it probably means you’re not trying enough things to get better.

Because we operate with that mindset, when someone makes a mistake—whether it’s me or a new employee—we give people some latitude. We treat it with empathy. As long as it’s made in good faith, it’s an opportunity for the business to learn and improve.

That said, it doesn’t mean we get sloppy. One of our mantras at Atlas is that we never make the same mistake twice. You take the lesson from what went wrong, adjust your approach, and come out the other side a stronger and more effective member of the team.

When you think about the employee experience at Atlas, what stands out to you?

What stands out to me is how much the company rewards ideas and intellectual curiosity. At a lot of businesses, you’re slotted into your role, and that’s it. You don’t have a voice in shaping the direction of the company. That’s not the case at Atlas. In many ways, we operate like a very flat organization, where every person has real opportunities to make their voice heard.

If someone on our team comes to me and says, “I feel like I’ve got a strong grasp of my current role, and I’d love to learn more about this side of the business,” we can get them involved in new projects right away. Or if someone says, “I’ve been researching the market and have an idea for our trading desk,” that’s something we’re going to take seriously.

The entrepreneurial mentality that Sam had when he founded Atlas has trickled down through the whole organization. You see people here with a lot of drive and curiosity, and that’s a big part of what makes the employee experience so unique.

Can you share an example of mentorship at Atlas, either someone who mentored you or someone you’ve had the chance to mentor?

I can think of examples of both.

Even though Sam owns the company outright, we’ve always maintained a voluntary board of directors to advise the business. Many of these individuals are entrepreneurs who have built and exited successful companies, and they bring a wealth of perspective about growing a business and serving customers. During my years as president, those advisors have been an invaluable sounding board and helped fill gaps in my own experience. They make me a better leader.

On the other side, we’re fortunate to have a leadership team that takes mentoring younger employees very seriously. There’s one individual I’m working with right now who hopes to be a future leader at the company. He had been working in one division for some time and doing a great job, but he came to me and said, “I want to grow. Can I try my hand in another role?”

We moved him to a team that had nothing to do with his original role, and I worked closely with him to help manage the transition. Now he’s thriving in that position as well. In many ways, it reminds me of my own early days at Atlas: working across divisions and getting hands-on with different parts of the business. It’s a real privilege to work with ambitious younger team members like that and invest in their growth.

Last question: if you had to share one piece of advice with someone in their 20s just starting at Atlas, what would it be?

Be curious.

Like I said, this is a company built on 100 ideas a day, and that’s still our culture. By learning the market, finding mentors in the organization, and digging into hard problems, you’ll start to develop ideas of your own that can help shape the future of Atlas.

At the end of the day, we are a fast-paced, hard-charging, entrepreneurial company, and we take a lot of pride in our ability to deliver for our customers. If that kind of environment excites you, you’re going to do very well here.