T boone pickens

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July 8, 2008

T boone pickens, Jr. ,born May 22, 1928, is an American businessman who chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator during the 1980s. With an estimated current net worth of about $3 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 117th-richest person in America and ranked 369th in the world.

Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma. His father worked in the oil business as an oil and mineral landman (rights leaser), and his mother ran the Office of Price Administration during World War II, rationing gasoline and other goods for four counties. As his mother was about to give birth to Boone, doctors told his father that complications had arisen, and that they could save only Boone or his mother. His father refused to accept the doctors’ decision, and finally directed that they perform the first Caesarean section in the history of the Holdenville hospital. His mother survived.

Pickens was a child during the depression and although money was tight his family always had food on the table. “My grandmother kept a large garden and some nights we had meat to go with the vegetables and some nights we didn’t, but we never went hungry. My mother and grandmother were frugal people, and they felt it was a real privilege to work and have a job. So I always worked.”

Pickens delivered newspapers as an 11-year old boy and quickly expanded his newspaper route from 28 papers to 156. “I did that not by getting new customers,” says Pickens, “but by merging with routes that were contiguous to me. That was my first introduction to expanding quickly by acquisition—a talent I would perfect in my later years.”

In the late 1930s the oil boom in Oklahoma was ending and Pickens’ father decided to move the family to Amarillo, Texas.Pickens didn’t want to move but eventually adjusted to the larger city, helped in part by his skill at basketball and a coach who inspired him. “He told us to play every game for all we’re worth,” says Pickens, “but when the game’s over, it’s over. That taught me not to dwell too much on my losses or successes.”

Pickens attended Texas A&M on a basketball scholarship but lost the scholarship and transferred to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University), joining Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He graduated from Oklahoma A&M with a degree in geology in 1951.

The 1950s were difficult times for the oil industry and petroleum geologists. After graduation Pickens was unemployed for a time and asked then Oklahoma State basketball coach Henry Iba for help. Iba set Pickens up with two interviews for high-school basketball coaching jobs but he wanted something in return. “If I get a job for you, you’ve got to send me a player,” Pickens said Iba told him.Although Pickens didn’t end up becoming a coach, the favor Iba did for him was the impetus behind Pickens’ decision 50 years later to make a $165 million donation to Oklahoma State University’s athletic program. “Mr. Iba, he would be very, very happy with my performance,” Pickens said.

Pickens finally got a job working for Phillips Petroleum and was one of only seven in his graduating class who found an oil-related job. He stayed with Phillips until 1954. After a period as a wildcatter, he struck out on his own founding the company that became Mesa Petroleum in 1956.

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