Everything about T Boone Pickens Jr totally explained
Thomas 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's ranked by
Forbes as the
117th-richest person in America and ranked 369th in the world.
Early years
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.
Pickens was a child during the depression and although money was tight his family always had food on the table.
Pickens delivered newspapers as an 11-year old boy and quickly expanded his newspaper route from 28 papers to 156.
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.
The mergers and acquisitions years
Pickens was one of the first independent oilmen to grow his company by
acquisitions rather than by just exploration. Before reaching the age of 40, Pickens led Mesa's first big acquisition, the
Hugoton Production Company, which was 30 times the size of Mesa.
By 1981, Mesa had grown into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world, and Pickens shifted his focus to acquiring other oil and gas companies. He spent much of the decade targeting undervalued companies, making solicited and unsolicited buyout bids and other
merger and acquisition activity. This made Pickens a celebrity during the 'deal-making' 80s. His most publicized deals included attempted buyouts of
Cities Service,
Gulf Oil,
Phillips Petroleum, and
Unocal. During this period, Mesa did complete successful acquisitions of Pioneer Petroleum and the mid-continent assets of Tenneco.
These as well as other deals placed Pickens at the center of controversy during the 80s. His celebrity rose so quickly after the
Gulf Oil takeover bid that he appeared on the cover of
Time magazine and briefly considered running for president in the 1988 elections . During this period, he was often characterized as a
corporate raider and
greenmailer, as many of his deals were not completed though Pickens and the shareholders he represented received substantial profits through the eventual sale of their
stock. His later takeover targets included
Newmont Mining, a New York-based firm,
Diamond Shamrock, and
Koito Mfg., Ltd., a Japanese auto-parts manufacturer, making substantial gains in the process. He was also a major force in the creation of the
United Shareholders Association (USA), which from 1986 - 1993 attempted to influence the governance of several large companies. After nearly two years of periodic hearing and debate, in July 1998 the
Securities and Exchange Commission voted 4-1 to approve a one-share, one-vote rule, a primary USA objective.
On the local level, Pickens chaired the Board of Regents of
West Texas State University in
Canyon and in 1987-1988 contributed to the restoration of the administration building known as "Old Main". He was also active in the Republican Party in
Potter County. Pickens organized a campaign in the mid-1980s against the
Amarillo Globe-News newspaper, for what he claimed was inaccurate reporting about his deals and Mesa. Although the newspaper owner,
Morris Communications, replaced its publisher twice during the conflict, Pickens' attempts to have the paper change its editorial policy failed. Shortly thereafter, in 1989, Pickens and Mesa moved to a suburb of
Dallas.
Contributions and donations
Donations to Oklahoma State University
In recent years, Pickens has focused his energy on his alma mater, the
Stillwater campus of Oklahoma State University (OSU). Through his contributions, Pickens has spearheaded an effort to create an athletic village just north of the existing campus. In order to do so, hundreds of homes were purchased by the OSU administration using Pickens' contributions. Pickens' gift remains the largest donation to a university's athletic program in collegiate history. His total contributions to OSU come to over $290 million dollars. Over $265 million, or 92%, of his donations have been towards athletics. Pickens also has made substantial academic gifts to Oklahoma State University, particularly to the
School of Geology, which is named for him.
On
December 30,
2005, Pickens made a $165 million gift to Oklahoma State University. The
New York Times reported that "the money spent less than an hour on
December 30 in the account of the university's charity, O.S.U. Cowboy Golf Inc., before it was invested in a
hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens, BP Capital Management."
(External Link
) Pickens, who is on the board of the O.S.U. Cowboy Golf, waived any management fees for the OSU monies, however, and all profits of the fund go to growing the OSU gift. The gift is intended to help fund an upgrade of the football stadium and construction of an athletic village, but sparked controversy because OSU planned to use
eminent domain to acquire residential property for the projects.
(External Link) The donation comes after a $70 million gift from Pickens to OSU in 2003, which was similarly structured using O.S.U. Cowboy Golf, Inc.
(External Link)
On
July 28,
2007 the Board of Regents of Oklahoma State University approved a resolution to move $28 million from the OSU Foundation into Pickens' BP Capital Management company in Dallas. Oklahoma State has previously invested $277 million in the fund. Pickens has been waiving fees for the university's investments with his fund.
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On May 21, 2008, the day before his 80th birthday, Texas billionaire Boone Pickens made a historic gift of 100 million dollars to academics at Oklahoma State University. The gift will be matched dollar to dollar by the state hence the amount accounts for 200 million dollars.
Political Interests and Contributions
Since 1980, Pickens has contributed over $5 million in political donations.
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Pickens and friend and fellow financier
Harold Clark Simmons are financial supporters of President
George W. Bush, having contributed heavily to both his Texas and national political campaigns. In 2004, Pickens contributed generously to 527 Republican groups, including a $3 million contribution for the
Swift Vets and POWs for Truth attacking Bush's rival,
John Kerry, and $2.5 million to the
Progress for America advocacy group. Pickens made a $250,000 contribution for Bush's second inaugural celebration. Pickens has offered $1 Million to anyone who can prove any of the Swiftboat charges untrue. Kerry accepted the challenge and on November 17, 2007 said he'd disprove the charges against him.
(External Link) Pickens then added additional criteria to his initial challenge
(External Link), asking for Kerry's service records, videos and tapes made during his service and his military journal. Kerry responded, saying Pickens had backtracked and offered again to meet him in a public forum to dispute his claims
(External Link). Pickens has yet to respond.
In
2005, Pickens was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President
George W. Bush.
On
July 16,
2007, Pickens wrote an article for the
National Review supporting
Rudy Giuliani for President. "In Rudy Giuliani, a gracious and committed public servant I’ve known for many years, we see that rare blend of big-picture vision and proven track record of achieving the “impossible.” We see a forward-looking, accomplished executive eager to tackle the challenges of today’s America and ensure that tomorrow we wake up stronger, freer, and more united than ever before."
(External Link) Pickens is an executive-committee member of the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee.
Pickens chaired the celebration for the 40th anniversary of the
American Spectator, a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics.
Humanitarian contributions
Pickens and employees of his
BP Capital LLC donated $7 million to the
Hurricane Katrina relief effort. The
Chronicle of Philanthropy lists Pickens as among its largest charitable givers
2005 and 2006. He has donated nearly a half a billion dollars to philanthropic causes during his career.
On
May 16,
2007, Pickens donated $100 million to two
University of Texas health care institutions. The gifts were donated to the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The donations are required to grow to $1 billion within twenty-five years before they can be disbursed by the recipient institutions.
On
August 23,
2007, Bizjournals.com reported that Pickens is donating $2.5 million to Happy Hill Farm Academy/Home, a residential school for at-risk children and teenagers, to build a training center and guest lodge. Pickens donated $1 million to Happy Hill Farm for the construction of a new academic campus at the residential school in February 2007.
On December 5, 2007 the Dallas Business Journal reported that Pickens had donated $6 million to Jubilee Park located at S. Carroll Avenue and Lindsley/Parry Avenue in Dallas and would man a bulldozer to begin demolition of an abandoned building across the street from a kindergarten Head Start program in Jubilee Park.
Recent interests
At 79 years of age, Pickens remains as active as when he made his fame in the oil industry more than 20 years ago. Pickens interests are running his multi-billion dollar hedge fund, promoting natural gas as an alterative fuel, building the world's largest wind farm, and promoting athletics at Oklahoma State University.
Hedge fund management
Pickens founded BP Capital and has a 46% interest in the company which runs two hedge funds, Capital Commodity and Capital Equity, both of which invest primarily in oil and natural gas. In 2006 Pickens earned $990 million from his equity in the two funds and $120 million from his share of the 20% fees applied to fund profits.
(External Link)
Natural gas as an alternative fuel
Pickens has begun speaking out on the issue of
peak oil, claiming that world oil production is about to enter a period of irrevocable decline. He has called for the construction of more
nuclear power plants, the use of
natural gas to power the country's transportation systems, and the promotion of
alternative energy. Pickens' involvement with the natural gas fueling campaign is long-running. He formed Pickens Fuel Corp. in 1997 and began touting natural gas as the best vehicular fuel alternative because it's a domestic resource that, among many advantages, is clean (Natural Gas Vehicles or
NGVs emit up to 95% less pollution than gasoline or diesel vehicles) and reduces foreign oil consumption. Reincorporated as Clean Energy in 2001, the company now owns and operates natural gas fueling stations from British Columbia to the Mexican border.
On
September 19,
2007, Pickens told CNBC that the price of oil could rise to $100. "Demand is up and supply is flat, so it's got to go on up," said Pickens, whose company is betting on natural gas for vehicles. "I can give you an Oklahoma guarantee that natural gas will never sell above diesel and gasoline prices" as fuel for vehicles Pickens added.
Trip to China
On
July 20,
2007, the
Wall Street Journal reported that Pickens, on his first trip to China, has announced that he's looking to find a local partner to set up a chain of retail natural-gas fueling stations in China. "Natural gas is cheaper and better for transportation," he told reporters in Beijing.
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The Dallas Morning News reported on
August 1,
2007 that Pickens, back from his trip to China, hadn't made a deal to supply natural gas. "That's a long way to go when you've got plenty of deals in your own back yard to hunt for," said Pickens. Pickens added that his most lasting impression of Beijing was the smog. "Air quality is horrible. It was worse than I've ever seen in Los Angeles, even on its worst days 40 years ago. If they'd had the Olympics when I was there, that 100-yard dash would have been a relay."
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World's largest wind farm
In June 2007, Pickens announced that he intends to build the world's largest
wind farm by installing large wind
turbines in parts of four
Panhandle counties. The project would produce up to four thousand
megawatts of
electricity. Pickens' Mesa Power LP will undertake the construction. If completed, the farm would generate more than five times the 735 megawatts produced at the present largest such farm near
Abilene, according to Susan Williams Sloan, spokesman for the American Wind Energy Association.
On
August 16,
2007, Pickens' Mesa Power announced that it had filed documents with the state of Texas to add four thousand
megawatts of
electricity to the state grid. The filing with the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) projected that the project would be completed in 2011 and would include up to 2,700 turbines on up to in
Roberts and adjacent counties in the Texas Panhandle. "We are now meeting with Panhandle landowners and negotiating wind lease and easement agreements," said Pickens. "We are excited at how quickly the pieces are falling into place." In November 2007 elections were held to approve fresh water supply districts in Roberts and
Kaufman counties. Only five people live within the proposed district's boundaries and will be able to vote in the election. If the special district is approved in the election, Pickens' company will need to work with land owners to secure leases for placing windmills on their properties. On November 7, 2007 the Houston Chronicle announced that both of the people eligible to cast ballots for the creation of a Fresh Water Supply District in Roberts County endorsed the plan in the election.
On January 30, 2008, The Oklahoman reported that Pickens is ready to start buying wind turbines for the project within a month, that he plans to buy between 1,700 and 2,000 turbines, and that that'll cost from $200 million to $300 million. Pickens predicted that similar wind farm projects could be built in the Texas Panhandle and the US-Canadian border in the future. The turbines will be delivered in 2010 and 2011.
Water rights
Pickens has recently begun buying up subsurface
water rights in Texas. Pickens' new company, Mesa Water, bought ground water rights for 200,000 acres (800 km²) in Roberts County, Texas for $75 million and over a 30-year period expects to make more than $1 billion on his investment. Pickens wants to take the water from the
Ogallala Aquifer and pump it to El Paso, Lubbock, San Antonio or Dallas-Fort Worth.
(External Link) On November 6, 2007 voters will go to the polls to seat a five-member board of supervisors and to approve $101 million in revenue bonds to acquire rights-of-way for delivering water and wind-generated electricity.
Swift Boat challenge
On November 6, 2007, Pickens reportedly offered a million dollars to anyone who could disprove even a single charge made by the Swiftvets and POWs for Truth (SBVT), an anti-Kerry group he'd supported in 2004..
In response to Kerry's acceptance of the challenge, Pickens issued a letter the same day, narrowing the original challenge to the SBVT ads, and requiring Kerry to provide his Vietnam journal, all of his military records, specifically those covering the years after his active duty service, and copies of all movies and tapes made during his service. Pickens' letter also challenged Kerry to agree to donate $1 million to the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, if Kerry "cannot prove anything in the Swift Boat ads to be untrue."
On November 20, 2007, Kerry issued a letter responding to Pickens' letter. He accused Pickens of "parsing and backtracking" on his initial offer and wrote that "I am prepared to prove the lie and marshal all the evidence, the question is whether you're prepared to fulfill your obligation." He concluded that "the only thing remaining now is to set the date for our meeting in an appropriate forum...."
Personal life and interests
Pickens lives in the
Preston Hollow neighborhood of north
Dallas and owns a ranch along the
Canadian River in the
Texas Panhandle.
Pickens is married to Madeleine Pickens, widow of renowned
Thoroughbred racehorse owner
Allen E. Paulson.
Pickens was
divorced from Beatrice Carr and from Lynn O'Brien.
Pickens has five children and twelve grandchildren.
(External Link)
Pickens' son charged with security fraud
One of Pickens' sons, Michael O'Brien Pickens, was arrested and charged with
securities fraud, a "
pump and dump" scam using
junk faxes, in July 2005. Michael pled guilty in October 2006. On December 20, 2007 Reuters reported that Michael O'Brien Pickens was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to take part in a substance abuse program.
Interest in Bobwhite Quail
Pickens has been interested in hunting quail and in keeping hunting dogs since he was a boy growing up in Holdenville, Oklahoma where his father always kept two dogs. Pickens bought of overgrazed pasture near the Canadian River in 1971 and Pickens would drive from Amarillo to hunt all day with his hunting buddies. NBC5 reported on November 9, 2006 that Pickens was among those who opposed the slaughter of horses. Equestrian Magazine reported on July 24, 2006 that Pickens would be testifying on July 25, 2006 to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503). During his testimony before Congress Pickens criticized Texas for being home to two horse slaughter plants.
Time Magazine reported in its July 25, 2006 issue that Pickens was pushing for passage of the bill to bar the slaughter of horses for human consumption and that he was being opposed by many of his friends in the cattle business.
Awards
On March 6, 2008 Park Cities Quail Unlimited honored Pickens as its 2008 Lifetime Sportsman Award winner.
On March 19, 2008 the Association of Fundraising Professionals announced that Pickens had been chosen as the winner of the Association of Fundraising Professionals' top philanthropy award, the Paschal Murray Award for Outstanding Philanthropist.
Further Information
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