George Kaiser

Born in 1942, to the family of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who settled in Oklahoma, George Kaiser was the first in his immediate family to be born a U.S. citizen, after his father Herman Kaiser came to Tulsa in 1940, being sponsored by an uncle. Kaiser then attended Tulsa public schools, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Harvard University. He initially thought about being a Foreign Service officer but ended up joining his father’s business, Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. founded by his uncle and parents.

George Kaiser, who prefers doing things rather than sitting around talking about doing things, works 70 hours a week, much of it in his Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. office in Tulsa, and half of his time doing philanthropic deeds and other businesses. Kaiser is a business man with his feet on the grounds and head in the clouds, and is known to be the most astute investor and the smartest oilman in the business. His hard work and reasonable risk taking helped him to expand his family-owned oil company in to one of the largest private producers of oil and natural gas in the industry. This oil tycoon also purchased the failing Bank of Oklahoma from the FDIC in 1991 for $60 million, and has reportedly invested $660 million to form Excelerate Energy.

Being Philanthropist apparently suits Kaiser, as his foundation donated more than $300 million to charity in Tulsa over the past decade. Kaiser donated more than $6 million to Educare, as education sector is one of his favorite causes, and delivers huge pay-off as per the research. He founded the George Kaiser Family Foundation, for which he is the sole donor to this foundation and has donated $3.3 billion of his own funds. He even signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, joining more than 70 people including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates in pledging to give away at least half of their assets. George Kaiser’s influence is everywhere in Tulsa, yet he eschews publicity, functions and rarely gives interviews. This self-effacing man owns no vacations home, yachts or airplanes, prefers to travels on commercial flights, and lives in a $1.6 million house in midtown Tulsa. Kaiser got married to his blind date, late Betty Eudene and the couple had three children, Philip, Leah and Emily.