T. BOONE PICKENS

One of America's foremost oil and gas entrepreneurs, T. Boone Pickens chairs the BP Capital Management Hedge Fund. He is one of the richest men in the world, with a net worth in the billions. He became well known for his successful business takeover tactics in the 1980s.

T. Boone Pickens was born on May 22, 1928, and graduated from Oklahoma State University with a geology degree in 1951. He founded the BP management fund in 1997, and runs two hedge funds: Capital Commodity and Capital Equity, both of which invest primarily in oil and gas. He was a major financial support of President George W. Bush.