Richard Baxter Gilliam is an American executive and founder of the

Abingdon, Virginia Abingdon is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States, southwest of Roanoke. The population was 8,376 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Washington County. The town encompasses several historically significant sites and f ...

-based

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

extractor Cumberland Resources. Cumberland Resources Corporation employed over 1,200 individuals in Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. In 2010, Gilliam sold Cumberland Resources to Massey Energy (currently

Alpha Natural Resources Alpha Natural Resources is a large American producer of metallurgical coal ("met coal") for the industrial production of steel and iron and low-sulfur thermal coal ("steam coal") to fuel steam boilers for the production of electrical power. In Nove ...

) for $960 million. Gilliam gave away over $80 million to his employees following the sale of his company. In 2011, Gilliam and his wife, Leslie Flanary Gilliam, established The Richard and Leslie Gilliam Foundation.

Public activity

Gilliam is a major conservative donor in Virginia, giving $750,000 in 2012 to

American Crossroads American Crossroads is a US Super PAC that raises funds from donors to advocate for certain candidates of the Republican Party. It has pioneered many of the new methods of fundraising opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling in ''Citizens United ...

and to

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 ...

. In 2009, Gilliam was the fifth largest donor to the campaign of Virginia governor

Bob McDonnell Robert Francis McDonnell (born June 15, 1954) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and former military officer who served as the 71st governor of Virginia from 2010 to 2014. His career ended after his corruption scandal and convic ...

. In November 2010, McDonnell appointed Gilliam to the state's Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates. Gilliam was also a top donor to

Ken Cuccinelli Kenneth Thomas Cuccinelli II ( ; born July 30, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, h ...

's 2013 gubernatorial campaign. In 2018, Gilliam announced a $5.2 million commitment to

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

to establish the Center for Entrepreneurship. The center will be named for his late wife, Leslie Flanary Gilliam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilliam, Richard Baxter American chief executives American businesspeople in the coal industry Virginia Republicans People from Albemarle County, Virginia Living people Year of birth missing (living people)