Harold Glenn Hamm (born December 11, 1945) is an American business magnate in the oil and gas business. He is known for extracting shale oil resources. As of February 4, 2022, Hamm’s net worth is estimated to be US$49.3 billion, making him the 63rd wealthiest person in the world. He is the founder and chairman of Continental Resources. In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Hamm as his energy advisor, and Hamm donated to and advised Romney’s election effort.
The majority of Hamm’s fortune is derived from his family’s ownership of Continental Resources, an oil and gas producer that pumped more than 320,000 barrels of oil or the equivalent per day in 2021, according to its financial results. Continental is the top oil producer in the Bakken oil basin in North Dakota and Montana and is also the region’s largest leaseholder, according to the company’s website.
Hamm controls all of the company following the merger of the formerly public company with Hamm’s Omega Acquisition in November 2022.
He previously held about 83% of the business directly and through family members, according to an October 2022 SEC filing that noted his intention to acquire the company in its entirety.
Earlier filings in 2022 revealed a transfer of shares via a dividend and dissolution agreement from Harold Hamm Family LLC to its members including Hamm’s children. Shares held by family members are attributed to Hamm in this analysis to reflect his status as founder and chairman.
Hamm divorced in November 2014 and his wife received more than $1 billion in cash and other assets, such as farm equipment, based on information in the November 2014 Oklahoma divorce decree. The decree detailed about $420 million in mostly liquid assets Hamm held, including $224 million with Northern Trust, as well as accounts with J.P. Morgan and Charles Schwab.
Hamm used to own 61.77% of Hiland Partners, an oil and gas pipeline company he founded, and collected about $1.24 billion when he sold it to Kinder Morgan in February 2015. The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of these proceeds and expenses, as well as taxes, market performance charitable donations and insider transactions.
Commenting on the transfer of Continental shares in February 2022, Hamm told Bloomberg News: “Full control stays with me, so this changes nothing in that regard.”
Early life
Hamm was born in Lexington, Oklahoma, the 13th and youngest child of cotton sharecroppers, Jane Elizabeth (née Sparks) and Leland Albert Hamm
Career
In 1967, he founded Shelly Dean Oil Company, which would later become Continental Resources. The company pioneered the development of the Bakken oil field in North Dakota and Montana using horizontally drilled wells and hydraulic fracturing. When Continental Resources grew into a major oil producer, Hamm became a billionaire. Continental Resources, known for its use of shale oil, is Oklahoma’s fourth-largest public company.
Political involvement
Shortly after being named energy advisor to Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in March 2012, Hamm donated $985,000 to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. Hamm has been described as part of the conservative donor network of the Koch brothers, Charles and David Koch.
In January 2016, Hamm claimed that Saudi Arabia was unsuccessfully attempting to “flood the crude market at a time of oversupply”.
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Hamm criticized the Obama administration‘s energy policies, claiming that President Barack Obama was “burdening oil companies with greater regulations” so that gasoline prices would spike. Hamm also denounced the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Department of State in 2015, asserting that Iran would be more able to export petroleum and develop an atomic bomb.[16]
In the 2016 United States presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump considered appointing Hamm as energy secretary
Involvement in education
Hamm has honorary degrees from the University of Mary, Northwestern Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.
The Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma was named after Hamm, who has type 2 diabetes. To create the center, the Harold and Sue Ann Hamm Foundation donated $10 million Hamm is a member of the Global Leadership Council at the Offutt School of Business of Concordia College, Moorhead.
On February 1, 2022, the Harold Hamm Foundation and Continental Resources announced a $12 million gift to the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, to establish the Hamm School of Engineering and endow a “Continental Resources | Monsignor James Shea Chair of Engineering” at the private, Catholic university. It is believed to be the largest philanthropic single gift given to education in the region of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, the footprint of the Bakken formation.
Awards and recognition
In 2007, Hamm was named the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year”, and in 2009, he was named “Energy Advocate of the Year” by the International Energy Policy Conference.
Hamm was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2011.
In 2012, Time magazine named Hamm one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People”.
Hamm was named “CEO of the Year” by Platts Global Energy Awards in 2013, the same year they named Continental “Energy Company of the Year”.
Forbes featured him on its cover in May 2014, publishing the story “Harold Hamm: The Billionaire Oilman Fueling America’s Recovery”.
He was named “Wildcatter of the Year” by Western Energy Alliance in 2015.
In 2016, he received the Horatio Alger Award. He also received in 2016 the “Executive of the Year” award from Oil and Gas Investor magazine, as well as a “Lifetime Achievement Award”, again from Platts Global Energy.
On April 29, 2023, Hamm was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Personal life
Hamm’s first wife was Judith Ann; they had three children. They divorced in 1987.
In April 1988, Hamm married Sue Ann Arnall, with whom he had two children, Jane and Hilary. Sue Ann is an economist and lawyer, and has been an executive at Continental Resources. She filed for divorce on May 19, 2012, but Hamm said that he separated from her in 2005. Several media outlets reported that up to half of Hamm’s estimated $20 billion fortune could be transferred to his wife, which would become a world record for most money transferred in a divorce. While a judge ruled that his ex-wife would receive $1 billion, she rejected the settlement, seeking a greater sum. According to CNBC, Arnall deposited a US$974,790,317.77 settlement check in 2015 (equivalent to $1,203,468,490.03 in 2022).
Hamm lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and owns homes in Enid and Nichols Hills, both in Oklahoma.
Milestones
- 1945 Harold G. Hamm is born in rural Oklahoma.
- 1963 Takes job pumping gas and fixing flats in Enid, Oklahoma.
- 1967 Forms Shelly Dean Oil to wildcat in Oklahoma.
- 1985 Buys portion of Petro-Lewis and its 500 wells; his largest purchase.
- 1993 Expands beyond Oklahoma with purchase in Williston Basin.
- 2003 Continental buys 300,000 acres in North Dakota’s Bakken field.
- 2007 Sells shares of Continental Resources in an initial public offering.
- 2014 Hamm divorces wife Sue Ann and transfers $1 billion in assets to her.
