William Baine Berry

William “Bill” Berry was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, in 1952. His father, a WWII Air Force veteran, worked as an insurance adjuster. For most of Berry’s life, the family lived in Gulfport, where he grew up with the bayou as his playground. The second of four children in his family, Berry often jokes, “I always say that I actually had two mothers—one was 28 years older (my mother) and one was two years older (my sister). Both my parents were only children, so there were no aunts and uncles and cousins, but I was fortunate to have loving parents and great siblings.”

One thing Berry admired about his father was how he treated other people. “He showed interest and respect for everyone he met no matter their station in life.” Other values in the Berry household included honesty, a strong work ethic, and self-discipline. Berry’s mother, an artist by nature, worked as a florist. “My mother is a humble person,” he says. “I have several of her paintings that show her talent, but she would never put her name on them.”

From the time he was tall enough to reach his father’s lawn mower handle, Berry took on that chore. “I also made money cleaning bricks for one cent each, and I earned 35 cents an hour at a car wash. I had a paper route and was part of a roofing crew. That job in the hot Mississippi summer taught me that I should probably start paying more attention to my education.”

Berry’s father was a state water-skiing and diving champion, and he taught his children to swim at an early age. “I grew up with a love for the water,” Berry says. “In high school, I took Red Cross life-saving courses and worked as a lifeguard. I also taught water skiing at summer camps and at our local junior college.”

When Berry was 16, Hurricane Camille hit Gulfport. “Our house had six feet of water in it,” he says. “We went weeks without water or electricity. We had to haul water up from the bayou just to flush our toilets. This was on top of Hurricane Betsy a few years earlier, which also flooded our house. These were my first lessons about adversity. We all have adversity in life. I believe that getting through our challenges develops our character and makes it possible to survive difficult things in the future.”

Worldwide travel would one day be in Berry’s future, but in his youth his world was small. The family did not take vacations and the farthest he ever went from home was to see his grandparents in the central part of the state. “I think my lack of knowledge about a larger world kept me from dreaming big about my future,” he says. “I just wanted to have a job that paid well. In high school, I thought I might want to be a lawyer.”

Berry attended Mississippi State University, where he majored in petroleum engineering. He did well in his classes and decided to stay with engineering for his graduate degree, which he earned in 1976. Even though he had scholarships to help pay for his education, Berry worked summers for the power company in Gulfport and petroleum companies in Texas and Louisiana. During holiday breaks, he worked as a security guard for a construction site. “Everyone in my family was a hard worker,” he says. “It was just something we all felt obliged to do. I also discovered that I like the sense of accomplishment I get from completing a job.”

Berry began his career with Phillips Petroleum Company in 1976 in Houston, and served the company in El Dorado, Arkansas; London, England; Odessa, Texas; Stavanger, Norway; Bartlesville, Oklahoma; and Abidjan, Ivory Coast. One week after arriving in Africa, he contracted malaria. “I got really sick, really fast,” he says. “They wanted to move me to a special treatment hospital in London, but the doctors felt it would likely kill me if they moved me. It took me six months to fully recover from this illness. My wife, Sherry, gets the credit for getting me through it. She nursed me round the clock and I don’t think I would’ve made it without her care.”

In 1992, Berry was named manager for international exploration and production in China. In 1995, he was named China country manager, worldwide drilling and production. During that time, he was recognized by the government of China as one of the 31 outstanding foreign experts.

He became vice president of international exploration and production, new ventures, in 1997, and vice president of exploration and production, Eurasia, in 1998. In 2001, he was elected senior vice president of exploration and production, Eurasia-Middle East, a position he held until the ConocoPhillips merger occurred in August 2002. During that time, Berry learned he had stage 4 cancer of the tonsils, which had invaded his lymph nodes. His aggressive treatment was life-altering. The radiation of his throat permanently destroyed his saliva glands. He also underwent a radical neck discectomy. “It wasn’t an easy time,” he says. “I wasn’t sure if I would be able to continue working. I wasn’t at all sure I would even survive. I finally decided when you go through a major challenge in life, you have to take a lead role in how you react to it. I always had a positive attitude, which I think helped my case. But I also had to share that leadership role with my doctors. I handed over my health to them and they got me through it. I survived and I’m eternally grateful for their care.”

Following the merger, Berry served as president, Asia Pacific, until year-end 2002, when he was named executive vice president of the company. As executive vice president of ConocoPhillips, Berry oversaw global exploration and production operations, managing more than 10,000 employees and more than $12 billion in capital outlays. He retired from ConocoPhillips in 2008.

In 2014, he joined the board of Continental Resources—a top 10 independent oil producer in the U.S. He served as the company’s CEO from 2020 until his retirement in 2023. Today, Berry serves as a director of the Hamm Institute of American Energy at Oklahoma State University, is on the board of Oceaneering International, is a member of the Foundation Board of Mississippi State University, is an advisory board member for Continental Resources, and is a member of the corporation board of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Berry believes that education is the cornerstone of civilization. “We are all born with so much potential,” he says. “Advancing technology and challenging the status quo improves from one generation to the next, but you need education to make that happen. It doesn’t matter what your background is because education transforms lives.”

Berry feels fortunate to have had a career that took him all over the world. “I’ve worked with people from 100 countries, I’ve lived on multiple continents, and I’ve experienced many different cultures. And while I’ve thoroughly enjoyed those experiences, I always came back to my belief that we have something very special here in the United States. Whatever you want to do here, you can do. It’s all possible in America, and that is truly what makes us unique. That’s what the America dream is: unlimited opportunity and unlimited potential.”

A strong supporter of philanthropic efforts that support education, Berry is excited to be joining the Horatio Alger Association. “This organization is not about a legacy I’m creating; it’s the legacy of those we are touching by giving them an opportunity for education. They will begin their adult lives with a better set of tools, which is going to be invaluable to their endeavors. That is the true legacy because the Scholars are going to create a whole new world. I’m excited to see what they do.”