Tom Kivisto is an American businessman who co-founded SemGroup, L.P. in April 2000 and served as the company's president and chief executive officer until July 18, 2008. Under his leadership, SemGroup completed more than 40 acquisitions and its total assets grew from $227.4 million in 2000 to more than $3.6 billion at year-end 2005. Kivisto was replaced by Terry Ronan on July 18, 2008, after news surfaced that SemGroup, L.P. was experiencing liquidity issues and considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Education

Kivisto's father, Ernie, was a successful high school basketball coach who won more than 1,000 games in his coaching career. Coached by his father, Tom Kivisto was a star point guard at East Aurora High School near Chicago. He then earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

, majoring in pre-med/psychology and playing for the

basketball team Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

from 1970 to 1974. While there, Kivisto was a member of KU's 1971 and 1974

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Final Four teams. He was named Academic All American, All Big 8 and Academic All Big 8. He holds the single game assist record for the Kansas team. His post-graduate work was in urban planning. He is a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame.

Career

Kivisto moved his family to

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

in 1993 after having lived in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

for 15 years working for Koch Industries. He started his own services company, SemGroup, which became one of the largest privately held companies in the United States before filing for bankruptcy in 2008. Kivisto donated over $15 million to his alma mater, the

, to help finance the building of new football facilities at the school. Kivisto serves on the board of directors of Saint Francis Health System, Family & Children's Services, and Project Single Parent, a nonprofit organization of which he is a cofounder. In 2006, Kivisto also was named to the University of Tulsa Board of Trustees. In 2006, The Pipe Liners Club of Tulsa recognized Kivisto with its President's Award. In January 2007, ''TulsaPeople Magazine'' named Kivisto "Tulsan of the Year" for 2006.

2006 Bank of America Loan

In 2006, Kivisto borrowed $15 million from Bank of America and guaranteed the loan through his personal trust company's limited partnership interest in SemGroup. In 2008, SemGroup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Notes

References

Living people Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Businesspeople from Oklahoma American men's basketball players Year of birth missing (living people) People from Wichita, Kansas University of Kansas alumni People from Tulsa, Oklahoma {{US-CEO-stub