George Kaiser – Billionaire

George B. Kaiser (born July 29, 1942) is an American businessman. He is the chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is among the 100 richest people in the world and one of the top 50 American philanthropists.

Early life

Kaiser was born on July 29, 1942 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended Central High School in Tulsa. He earned a B.A. from Harvard College in 1964 and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1966. He briefly considered joining the U.S. Foreign Service, but instead returned to Tulsa in 1966 to work for his father. Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. was created in the 1940s by Kaiser’s uncle and parents, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who settled in Oklahoma.

George’s father, Herman had been a judge in Germany until 1935, when he was removed from his job by the Nazis because he was Jewish. He and his wife escaped to England in 1938, then emigrated to the United States. They settled in Tulsa, where Herman’s aunt and uncle already lived. Herman joined the uncle’s oil drilling business. Their son was born in Tulsa. Herman died in Tulsa on October 14, 1992 at the age of 88.

Career

Oil and gas

George Kaiser took control of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company in 1969, after his father had a heart attack. Kaiser-Francis was a little-known, privately owned oil prospecting and drilling company at the time. Under George’s management, it became the 23rd largest nonpublic energy exploration company in the U.S. by 2010. In that year the company earned about $217 million, based on estimates by Bloomberg News.

Banking

In 1990, Kaiser bought Bank of Oklahoma out of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation receivership. Despite BOK’s depressed state, it was rich enough to land Kaiser on the Forbes 400 at one stroke. He has since expanded BOK from a 20-branch company located solely in Oklahoma into a $23.9 billion bank with operations in nine states. It is the 23rd largest bank holding company in the U. S. He owns 61.5 percent of BOK. As of 2007, Kaiser’s ownership interests in BOK were worth $2.3 billion. In 2008, with an estimated current net worth of around $12 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the 20-richest person in America and the richest person in Oklahoma. In March 2009, in the face of the general world economic downturn, Forbes reported that Kaiser’s net worth had dropped to $9 billion, ranking him in a tie for 43rd-richest person in the world. It has since risen to $9.8 billion as the markets recovered.

Professional sports

In April 2014, Kaiser bought Tom L. Ward’s interest in The Professional Basketball Club LLC, the investment group headed by Clay Bennett that owns the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association, as well as its Tulsa 66ers minor league affiliate.

Source:wikipedia