George Kaiser

George's father, Herman George Kaiser, had been an attorney in the district of the Kammergericht in Berlin until 1933, when he was dismissed by the Nazis because he was Jewish.

He and his wife Kate then moved to Rostock where Herman Kaiser worked with his father-in-law Max Samuel's EMSA-Werke company.

Herman Kaiser escaped to England in 1937 and his wife and daughter came over in September the following year.

Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. was created in the 1940s by Kaiser's uncle and parents, Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who settled in Oklahoma.

In 1940 all three emigrated to the United States.

They settled in Tulsa, where Herman's aunt and uncle already lived.

Herman joined the uncle's oil drilling business.

Their son was born in Tulsa.

George Bruce Kaiser (born July 29, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman.

He is the chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

As of September 2021, he is the 476th richest person in the world and was, in 2012, one of the top 50 American philanthropists.

Kaiser was born on July 29, 1942, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

He attended Central High School in Tulsa.

He earned a BA from Harvard College in 1964 and an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1966.

He briefly considered joining the U.S. Foreign Service, but instead returned to Tulsa in 1966 to work for his father.

Kaiser took control of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company in 1969, after his father had a heart attack.

Kaiser-Francis was a little-known, privately owned oil prospecting and drilling company at the time.

In 1990, Kaiser bought Bank of Oklahoma out of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation receivership.

Despite BOK's depressed state, it was rich enough to land Kaiser on the Forbes 400 at one stroke.

He has since expanded BOK from a 20-branch company located solely in Oklahoma into a $23.9 billion bank with operations in nine states.

He owns 61.5 percent of BOK.

Herman died in Tulsa on October 14, 1992, at the age of 88.

Kaiser's family foundation is also the largest contributor to the Tulsa Community Foundation, which Kaiser established in 1998 because of his perception that Tulsa's historical dependence on unorganized private giving from its wealthy families was no longer effective.

Beginning with gifts from seventeen local philanthropists, by 2006 this foundation had grown to become the largest community foundation in the United States, and now has approximately four billion dollars in assets.

As of 2007, Kaiser's ownership interests in BOK were worth $2.3 billion.

In 2008, with an estimated net worth of around $12 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the 20-richest person in America and the richest person in Oklahoma.

Kaiser is listed third on BusinessWeek's 2008 list of the top 50 American philanthropists, behind Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Among his prominent causes is fighting childhood poverty through the George Kaiser Family Foundation; he is also a major benefactor to the Jewish community in Oklahoma, which numbers about 5,000 people.

He has been notably active in the promotion of early childhood education.

In March 2009, in the face of the general world economic downturn, Forbes reported that Kaiser's net worth had dropped to $9 billion, ranking him in a tie for 43rd-richest person in the world.

As of 2023, George's net worth was estimated at $13.3 billion.

Under George's management, it became the 23rd largest nonpublic energy exploration company in the U.S. by 2010.

In that year the company earned about $217 million, based on estimates by Bloomberg News.

In April 2014, Kaiser bought Tom L. Ward's interest in The Professional Basketball Club, the investment group headed by Clay Bennett that owns the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association, as well as its Oklahoma City Blue minor league affiliate.

Kaiser's nephew is actor Tim Blake Nelson.

Kaiser has been married twice:

Kaiser typically works 70 hours a week in his office, spending half his time on philanthropy and the rest on banking, energy and other business interests.

Kaiser is affiliated with the Egalitarian Conservative Congregation B'Nai Emunah.

Kaiser avoids publicity, does not attend society functions and hardly ever gives interviews.

While he owns homes in Tulsa and San Francisco, he is said to own no vacation homes, airplanes or yachts.