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Harold Glenn Hamm (born December 11, 1945) is an American
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
in the oil and gas business. He is known for extracting
shale oil
Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil c ...
resources.
, Hamm's net worth is estimated to be billion, making him the 63rd wealthiest person in the world.
He is the founder and chairman of
Continental Resources In 2012, presidential candidate
Mitt Romney named Hamm as his energy advisor, and Hamm donated to and advised Romney's election effort.
Early life
Hamm was born in
Lexington,
Oklahoma, the 13th and youngest child of cotton
sharecroppers, Jane Elizabeth (née Sparks) and Leland Albert Hamm.
Career
In 1967, he founded Shelly Dean Oil Company,
[Harold Hamm: Executive Profile & Biography]
, ''Business Week'' which would later become Continental Resources.
[Harold Hamm Biography]
", 2010 New Horizons in Oil & Gas Conference The company pioneered the development of the
Bakken oil field in North Dakota and Montana using
horizontally drilled wells and
hydraulic fracturing. When Continental Resources grew into a major oil producer, Hamm became a billionaire.
Continental Resources, known for its use of shale oil, is Oklahoma's fourth-largest
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...
.
Political involvement
Shortly after being named energy advisor to Republican
Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in March 2012, Hamm donated $985,000 to the pro-Romney
super PAC Restore Our Future
Restore Our Future is a political action committee (PAC) created to support Mitt Romney in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election. A so-called Super PAC, Restore Our Future is permitted to raise and spend unlimited amounts of corporate, union, and ...
.
Hamm has been described as part of the
conservative donor network of the Koch brothers, Charles and David Koch.
In January 2016, Hamm claimed that Saudi Arabia was unsuccessfully attempting to "flood the crude market at a time of oversupply".
At the
2016 Republican National Convention, Hamm criticized the
Obama administration's energy policies, claiming that President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
was "burdening oil companies with greater regulations" so that gasoline prices would spike. Hamm also denounced the
Iran nuclear deal
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; fa, برنامه جامع اقدام مشترک , barnāmeye jāme'e eqdāme moshtarak (, ''BARJAM'')), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear ...
struck by the
Department of State in 2015, asserting that Iran would be more able to export petroleum and develop an
atomic bomb.
In the
2016 United States presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
, Republican candidate
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
considered appointing Hamm as
energy secretary.
Involvement in education
Hamm has
honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
s from
Northwestern Oklahoma State University and the
University of Oklahoma
, mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State"
, type = Public research university
, established =
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.7billion (2021)
, pr ...
.
The Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma was named after Hamm, who has
type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urinatio ...
.
To create the center, the Harold and Sue Ann Hamm Foundation donated $10 million.
Hamm is a member of the Global Leadership Council at the Offutt School of Business of
Concordia College,
Moorhead.
On February 1, 2022, the Harold Hamm Foundation and Continental Resources announced a $12 million gift to the
University of Mary
The University of Mary (UMary or simply Mary) is a private, Benedictine university near Bismarck, North Dakota. It was established in 1959 as Mary College.
The university is the largest degree-granting institution in western North Dakota. It ...
in
Bismarck, North Dakota, to establish the Hamm School of Engineering and endow a "Continental Resources , Monsignor James Shea Chair of Engineering" at the private,
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
university. It is believed to be the largest philanthropic single gift given to education in the region of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, the footprint of the
Bakken formation.
Awards and recognition
In 2007, Hamm was named the
Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...
"Entrepreneur of the Year", and in 2009, he was named "Energy Advocate of the Year" by the International Energy Policy Conference.
Hamm was inducted into the
Oklahoma Hall of Fame The Oklahoma Hall of Fame was founded in 1927 by Anna B. Korn to officially celebrate Statehood Day, recognize Oklahomans dedicated to their communities, and provide educational programming for all ages. The first Oklahoma Hall of Fame Induction Cer ...
in 2011.
In 2012, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine named Hamm one of the "World's 100 Most Influential People".
Hamm was named "CEO of the Year" by Platts Global Energy Awards in 2013, the same year they named Continental "Energy Company of the Year.
''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' featured him on its cover in May 2014, publishing the story "Harold Hamm: The Billionaire Oilman Fueling America's Recovery".
He was named "Wildcatter of the Year" by Western Energy Alliance in 2015.
In 2016, he received the Horatio Alger Award. He also received in 2016 the "Executive of the Year" award from ''Oil and Gas Investor'' magazine, as well as a "Lifetime Achievement Award", again from Platts Global Energy.
Personal life
Hamm's first wife was Judith Ann; they had three children. They divorced in 1987.
In April 1988, Hamm married Sue Ann Arnall, with whom he had two children.
[ Sue Ann is an economist and lawyer, and has been an executive at Continental Resources. She filed for divorce on May 19, 2012,] but Hamm said that he separated from her in 2005.[ Several media outlets reported that up to half of Hamm's estimated $20 billion fortune could be transferred to his wife, which would become a ]world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
for most money transferred in a divorce. While a judge ruled that his ex-wife would receive $1 billion, she rejected the settlement, seeking a greater sum. According to CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
, Arnall deposited a settlement check in (equivalent to $ in ).
Hamm lives in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
, Oklahoma, and owns homes in Enid and Nichols Hills
Nichols Hills is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 3,710 as of the 2010 census.
History
The 1,280 acres now known as Nichols Hills were developed as an exclu ...
, both in Oklahoma.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamm, Harold
1945 births
American billionaires
21st-century philanthropists
Living people
Oklahoma Republicans
People from Lexington, Oklahoma
Businesspeople from Oklahoma City
Businesspeople from Enid, Oklahoma