T. BOONE PICKENS

Born in 1928 in Holdenville, Oklahoma. Started Mesa Petroleum in 1956 with $2,500.

Built it into one of the largest independent oil companies in America over the next 30 years.

In the 1980s, he became America's most famous corporate raider. He launched hostile takeover bids for Gulf Oil, Phillips Petroleum, and Unocal — companies many times Mesa's size.

He didn't always win the companies, but he made hundreds of millions in greenmail and forced the industry to pay attention to shareholder value.

Founded BP Capital Management in 1996 as a commodity-focused hedge fund. Made $4 billion betting on oil and gas prices in the 2000s.

Then lost most of it when natural gas prices collapsed. He was worth $4 billion in 2008 and $500 million when he died in 2019.

Mesa Petroleum was the original company. BP Capital Management was the hedge fund.

Clean Energy Fuels Corporation was his venture into natural gas vehicles. He also launched the "Pickens Plan" in 2008 — a massive public campaign to reduce American dependence on foreign oil through natural gas and wind power.

He made massive investments in wind energy in the Texas panhandle — planning the world's largest wind farm. The $2 billion project was eventually scaled back due to transmission line challenges and falling natural gas prices.

His philanthropy: over $652 million to Oklahoma State University (the largest donation to any public university in history at the time), plus hundreds of millions to medical research and hospitals.

Pickens was a commodities speculator and corporate activist. He bet big on oil and gas prices and used shareholder activism to force change at companies he thought were mismanaged.

His investment thesis was always energy. He understood oil and gas markets better than almost anyone alive.

When he was right about price direction, he made billions. When he was wrong, he lost billions.

There was no middle ground.

In his later years, he became an early advocate for alternative energy — arguing that America needed to diversify its energy sources for national security, not just environmental reasons.

The oil price run-up from 2003-2008. Pickens was massively long oil through BP Capital when crude went from $30 to $147 per barrel.

His fund returned over 200% during this period and his personal net worth peaked at approximately $4 billion. He called the commodity supercycle correctly and bet the farm on it.

Doubling down on natural gas after 2008. As oil crashed in late 2008, Pickens stayed long natural gas, expecting prices to recover.

They didn't. Fracking unlocked massive supply, natural gas prices collapsed from $13 to under $2, and Pickens lost approximately $2 billion.

His wind farm project also stalled because cheap natural gas undercut the economics. He went from $4 billion to under $1 billion.

Pickens believed that understanding one industry deeply was worth more than diversifying across many. He knew energy.

He lived energy. Every dollar he made was in energy, and every dollar he lost was in energy too.

He also believed in shareholder rights — that management works for shareholders, not the other way around. His corporate raids in the 1980s were about forcing companies to return value to owners instead of hoarding cash and building empires.

His famous line: "A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan."

Married five times. He was open about his personal life's complications.

His final years were spent on his Mesa Vista Ranch in the Texas panhandle — a 65,000-acre property he eventually had to sell to cover debts. He died in September 2019 at age 91.

Born in Holdenville, Oklahoma. Attended Texas A&M (transferred from Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State).

Graduated with a degree in geology in 1951. The geology background gave him a genuine understanding of the oil business that most financiers lacked.