Harold Hamm Biography

Harold Hamm (born December 11, 1945) is an American oilman who was ranked in the March 2012 issue of Forbes as the 30th richest person in America and 76th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $11 billion. In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Hamm as his energy advisor, and thereafter Hamm made substantial monetary and advisory contributions to the election effort.

Life and career

Hamm was born in Lexington, Oklahoma, the 13th and youngest child of Oklahoma cotton sharecroppers. Hamm is a key player in Hiland Partners and Hiland Holdings as well as the oil-exploration company Continental Resources, Oklahoma's fourth largest public company. Continental Resources, moved from the Continental Towers in Enid, Oklahoma to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 2012. Hamm was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2011.

He worked his way up from pumping gas and repairing cars to becoming CEO of his own billion-dollar company. Harold Hamm has been the CEO of Continental Resources since 1967, when the company was called Shelly Dean Oil Company. Hamm and Continental Resources have been instrumental in developing the Bakken Oil Field in Montana and North Dakota. Hamm holds honorary degrees from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Enid High School. The Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma was named after Hamm, who has diabetes Type 2. Hamm's foundation, the Harold and Sue Ann Hamm Foundation donated 10 million dollars to create the center.

Hamm is a member of the Global Leadership Council at Concordia College, Moorhead, Offutt School of Business

Hamm has three children from his first wife; a former executive at Continental, they were divorced in 1987. The following year, he married Sue Ann Hamm; they have two grown daughters, Jane Hamm and Hillary Hamm. Jane Hamm is a graduate of Duke University and works at J.P. Morgan and Hillary Hamm attends Dartmouth College. They live in Enid, Oklahoma. Sue Ann Hamm filed for divorce on May 19, 2012.

Political involvement

Shortly after being named energy advisor to the Romney campaign in March 2012, Hamm donated $985,000 to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. On the eve of the convention, Hamm was credited in a report with being among oil and energy executives consulted in a plan to devolve permitting on Federal lands to the state where the land is located. Romney's proposal, which was launched the same week as two industry fundraisers netted $10 million for the campaign, was seen as going beyond roots in the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the sometimes controversial permitting policies of the George W. Bush administration in the 2000s.