Harold Hamm

The youngest of 13 children, Harold Hamm was born to sharecroppers in late 1945 in Lexington, Oklahoma. Hamm's oldest brother was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. "He had enlisted fairly early in the war," says Hamm, "so he had been through most of the fighting and then was killed pretty much at the end. He was married and had two kids, one of whom he'd never seen. I'm sure it was a hard time for my family then."

Nine children were still living at home when Hamm joined them. Besides sharecropping, Hamm's father was a part-time construction laborer and lay minister. The Hamm family grew crops, took care of livestock, and tended a vegetable garden. In fact, Hamm's first memory was picking tomatoes barefoot in the warm, red Oklahoma dirt.

"My father was raised in adverse circumstances," says Hamm. "His father left the family when he was a small child. My dad had only a third-grade education, but he did the best he could with what he had. He was a good, God-fearing, hard-working man who was most recognized for his generosity. We never had anything extra because my father always found someone who was worse off than we were. We generally always had somebody living with us until they could get back on their feet."

Hamm describes his mother as a bundle of energy. "She was a hard worker," he says, "and she took pride in the way she kept us all clean, clothed, and educated. She was the spark of our family."

The Hamm family moved from one tenant farm to another, and Hamm vividly remembers when one of the farmhouses they were living in caught fire and burned to the ground. The family moved into a rental in town, and the community generously gave them household goods to replace all they had lost. "We actually came out of that deal better than we'd been before," says Hamm. "Some people gave us new goods, we'd never had anything new before."

The farm to which the Hamms relocated had no running water. It was a tough day-to-day existence, but the family pulled together. Rather than being a chaotic existence, as some might expect for such a large family, Hamm remembers it as well organized.

The biggest blow to the family came when Hamm was 18 and his mother died of pancreatic cancer. "You don't realize the importance of a life until that life is gone," says Hamm. "My parents taught us honesty and integrity, always telling us to be proud of who we were. All of us grew up to be good, responsible citizens. We had a close family and still do. My brother, sister, and I recently attended a reunion with 160 family members. Out of the 13 children in our immediate family, every one of us had representatives there."

Hamm hardly remembers a time when he did not work. As a child, he gathered eggs, milked the cows, and slopped the hogs. He worked the cotton fields with his family every fall. "We couldn't go to school until the last cotton crop was in, which was the first snow or Christmas, whichever came first," he says. "We were always behind in school." But that did not suppress Hamm's love of learning.

At the age of 16, Hamm moved to Enid, Oklahoma. It was a unique time in northwest Oklahoma's history, and it had an effect on him. He saw the area's oil and gas development and was impressed by the men leading the charge, especially by their generosity. "One of the reasons I became interested in oil and gas in the first place is because I saw the generosity of oil industry leaders," says Hamm. "Frank and Jane Phillips gave away every dime of their huge oil and gas fortune. Waite Phillips, Sam Noble, the Skellys, the list goes on and on of oilmen and women who gave their wealth away to make their community and the world a better place. In Oklahoma, most of the oil people I have ever known fit that same mold."

The impressions he was forming were reinforced one day at a high school assembly when artist John Frank of Frankoma Pottery came to speak. "He talked about his love of the arts and building things. That was his passion. He spoke to everybody, but I thought he was speaking directly to me. He talked about finding something in our lives that we could be passionate about and encouraged us to follow that dream."

That concept caught Hamm's attention. "I thought, '˜What could I be passionate about? I'm going to high school, and I'm working at a truck stop.' But I looked at the oil and gas development running from south and northeast of Enid, Oklahoma, and that captured my imagination as a young man."

Hamm enjoyed school and did well in his studies, but for financial reasons, college was not in his plans. By the age of 18, he was married with a young family and working for a local oilfield services contractor. "Out of high school, all I had was a dream about someday being an oilman, providing for my family, and being able to give back to my community. I had no opportunity to go to college. I had no family background, no ties whatsoever, to the oil industry. I had no knowledge. The oilfield service business was my entry, my chance to learn. Absolutely, I started at the bottom, cleaning tanks. It doesn't get any harder than that."

By the age of 21, he had built up enough credit to take out a $1,000 loan to buy a tank truck and start his own service business. By day, he hauled drilling mud and water to rigs. By night, he studied maps of the area trying to identify oil plays. Hamm's first foray into the exploration side of the business came in 1971 when he stepped out and drilled a wildcat well in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. Every oilman's dream is that his first well is successful. Hamm's first well produced 20 barrels an hour, which is considered a good start. His second well came in at 75 barrels an hour and eventually that site grew to a field of six million barrels.

"That's where it started. That field enabled me to go to college, something I hadn't had the opportunity to do before. I didn't go for the degree; I just went for the knowledge and to develop the skill set in geology that I used to find more oil and gas."

Hamm built a grassroots startup into one of the top 10 NYSE-traded oil producers in the 48 contiguous states. Continental Resources became the largest leaseholder and one of the largest producers in the nation's premier oil field, the Bakken play of North Dakota and Montana. Continental also has significant positions in Oklahoma, including its SCOOP Woodford and SCOOP Springer discoveries and the STACK and Northwest Cana plays. With a focus on oil exploration and production, Continental unlocked the technology and resources that helped launch the nation's energy renaissance.

Looking back over his accomplishments, Hamm believes it all worked out the way it was supposed to. "All along, I could feel that I was doing the right thing at the right time," he says. "I could feel all the potential I had ahead of me. For me, looking for an oilfield was a simple idea. I studied the logs, bought some leases and some oil wells, and sure enough the oilfield existed where I thought it would be. One thing led to another. When I think about it now, it was divine intervention."

Hamm says that he has had a number of mentors in his life and that he has given back and served as a mentor himself. "I tell young people how important it is to focus on self-improvement throughout one's life," he says. "I like to quote an old Enid oilman, Jack Hodgden, who always said there are more deals to be had than there are people. I agree with Jack. Today, there are more opportunities than there are people stepping up and taking them."

Excited and humbled by his Horatio Alger Award, Hamm says, "It's a recognition of success, which for me is realizing your dreams, having a balanced life between your family and your business, and helping society when and where you can."

A signer of The Giving Pledge, Hamm has given generously to causes that improve healthcare and educational opportunities for people in the United States and across the globe. Through the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, his mission is to inspire young, bright scientists to find the cure for a disease that was identified as the largest health crisis of the next generation. Through the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering at the University of North Dakota, his mission is to inspire the next generation of oil and gas leaders to continue the American energy renaissance and all of its benefits, including the creation of millions of U.S. jobs, lower consumer prices, billions in tax revenue, wealth generation, and energy independence for America.

Hamm founded the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, which represents independent producers, royalty owners, and oilfield service companies that have launched the new era of energy abundance for America. DEPA has been largely credited with leading efforts to lift the nation's 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports, a goal that was achieved on December 18, 2015. "American energy is the best weapon against Russian aggression and OPEC dominance," says Hamm. "U.S. crude oil stabilizes global supply, ensuring America and our allies are never again held hostage by dictatorial regimes."

For his contributions to the country's energy security, Hamm was named "2015 Wildcatter of the Year" by the Western Energy Alliance. In 2013, Platts Global Energy Awards named him "CEO of the Year" and simultaneously named Continental Resources "Energy Company of the Year." In 2012, Time magazine named him among the 100 most influential people in the world for creating thousands of jobs in the oil industry and for his continuous support of education and diabetes research. In 2007, Ernst & Young selected Hamm as National Entrepreneur of the Year; in 2011, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.