LARRY G. KEAST BIO
Larry earned a BSME at the University of Texas and is a registered engineer. While at UT, he joined the Army National Guard, graduated from MP and airborne schools, OCS, and was commissioned a second lieutenant. At UT, Larry was elected president of the ASME student association.
In 1967, he joined Cameron Iron Works where he gained experience in engineering, offshore service, and manufacturing of blowout preventers and subsea equipment. This was a large global company led by a great engineer and president Herbert Allen and founded by a great entrepreneur Jim Abercrombie who also founded Texas Children’s Hospital.
After nine years with Cameron, Larry joined Worldwide Oil Tools as Vice President & General Manager. This was a startup in complete disarray, and in four years he built this little company into a respected international manufacturer of pipe testing equipment. Traveling worldwide and directing the development of four new product lines, Larry received his first three patents and learned to love startup manufacturing companies.
In 1980, Larry started Venturetech in his garage. Today, the company’s power swivels and top drives are the leaders in drilling and servicing oil and gas wells worldwide. Larry continues to direct Venturetech's development and is excited to be launching new product lines with 39 patents so far.
In 2007, Venturetech was honored as one of Houston’s fastest growing businesses by the Houston Business Journal. We also received their Enterprise Champion award for community work above and beyond financial growth, referring to our practice of hiring people who deserve a second chance.
For fun, Larry is building a car collection including a 62 Corvette restomod, a 92 Corvette ZR1, a 34 Ford pickup, two1940’s Jeeps, a 1923 Ford T-bucket roadster, a Bonneville Salt Flats race car, and other Jeeps for extreme rock crawling. To hopefully fund this enterprise and create jobs, he started Torque Engineering, LP to manufacture AIRTORQ, a driver-controlled air suspension kit allowing offroad Jeep drivers 8” up-down-tilt on-the-fly. See www.torq1.com. He is a founding life member of Corvair Houston and a member of the Space City Corvette Club.
He also learned to fly, and rides his bicycle to work 10 miles twice a week. He loves having a lot going on and does not understand retirement.
Giving back to the community is an important part of Larry’s life. He learned the power of support groups in the substance abuse programs Insight and Lifeway, and was an advisory board member of Cornerstone Recovery. After his wife was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1996, Larry was elected as the Texas Liver Coalition’s Director of Support Groups. Under Larry’s direction, the Coalition developed 32 support groups in Texas cities which helped thousands of people. Larry also served on Mayor Bill White’s Task Force for Hepatitis C. Thankfully, Larry's wife was cured after struggling through four years of the early difficult treatments. Today’s meds cure Hepatitis C easily.
Mr. Keast has enjoyed speaking to engineering and entrepreneurship students at the University of Texas and the University of Houston. Larry is a life member of the Texas Ex-students Association. He has served on the Advisory Council of Goodwill Industries. Larry has served as President of the Dover Club, a support organization of business owners and entrepreneurs, and as a board member of Unity Church. Larry is a member of Nomads since 1980, and has enjoyed membership in The Alternative Board, a business owners' roundtable group. In 2012, he was honored by Dickinson High School as Alumni of the Year. In 2025, Larry was inducted into the Hall of Fame of University of Texas Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumni.
Larry is a member of AESC, IADC, SAE, AOPA, and is a Certified Fluid Power Engineer.
Venturetech has always hired people who deserve a second chance including ex-offenders and older folks. Returning these Americans to the workforce continues to increase company morale and productivity. In 2004 Larry founded America in Recovery, a non-profit which encouraged other companies to hire such people.
Married for 58 years, Larry and Zandra have three children and six grandchildren.