Exhibit 31(a)

                          CERTIFICATIONS FOR FORM 10-Q

I, William M. Beard, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, certify
that:

     1.   I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of The Beard
          Company (the "registrant");

     2.   Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any
          untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
          necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances
          under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to
          the period covered by this report;

     3.   Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
          information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all
          material respects the financial condition, results of operations and
          cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in
          this report;

     4.   The registrant's other certifying officers and I are responsible for
          establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as
          defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal
          control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules
          13a-13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:

          (a)  Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such
               disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our
               supervision; to ensure that material information relating to the
               registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made
               known to us by others within those entities, particularly during
               the period in which this quarterly report is being prepared;

          (b)  Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or
               caused such internal control over financial reporting to be
               designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance
               regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the
               preparation of financial statements for external purposes in
               accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;

          (c)  Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure
               controls and procedures and presented in this report our
               conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls
               and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this
               report based on such evaluation; and

          (d)  Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant's internal
               control over financial reporting that occurred during the
               registrant's most recent fiscal quarter that has materially
               affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the
               registrant's internal control over financial reporting; and

5.   The registrant's other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on
     our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to
     the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of the registrant's board
     of directors (or persons performing the equivalent function):

     (a)  All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or
          operation of internal controls over financial reporting which are
          reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to
          record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

     (b)  Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other
          employees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal
          control over financial reporting.

                                         THE BEARD COMPANY

                                         /s/ William M. Beard
(Date)   November 14, 2003               _______________________________________
                                         William M. Beard, Chairman of the Board
                                         and Chief Executive Officer