The Oil Tycoon Facing The Most Expensive Divorce Ever Has An Amazing Rags To Riches Story
Harold Hamm was born in 1945, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers.
He left home at age 17 to take a job fixing flats and pumping gas in the town of Enid, Okla.
Source: Enid News
He later signed up for a DECA entrepreneurship program, which allowed him to finish high school and work full time.
Source: Enid News
In the meantime, he also got married — for the first time.
He and his wife Judith Ann had three children.
Source: BloombergBusinessweek
At age 22, he founded his own company, Shelly Dean Oil Co., the predecessor to Continental.
He named it after his two eldest daughters. Seven years later, the company was operating multiple producing wells across Oklahoma. He also operated a trucking subsidiary called Hamm and Phillips.
Source: Continental, SEC
Two decades later, the company was big enough that it could start throwing its weight around.
In 1985, Hamm acquired Petro-Lewis and 500+ oil and gas wells. It remains the company's largest acquisition to date.
Source: Continental
In 1987, he divorced his first wife, Judith Ann. A year later, he married 31-year-old Sue Ann.
Hamm was 43. They would have two daughters.
Source: Reuters
An economist and lawyer, Sue Ann has held key posts at Continental, including manager of crude oil marketing.
She's also testified to Congress on behalf of the company. According to her lawyer, she is no longer with the company.
Source: Reuters, NewsOK.com
This is around the time when the company really took off. Hamm renamed it Continental Resources in 1990.
In 1992 Continental purchased a monument to its success — the company's former headquarters in downtown Enid, OK – now called Continental Center.
Source: Continental
And — in 2003 — it entered North Dakota's Bakken shale play, now one of the country's most productive oil fields.
Source: Continental
The company finally went public in 2007. It's done pretty well.
Up nearly 500 percent since its IPO.
Source: Continental
Today, Hamm is the 35th-richest person in the country, with a net of worth $11.3 billion according to Forbes.
Source: Forbes
Which is why any divorce settlement would be so titanic — Harold owns 68% of his company.
It's not clear whether there is a prenuptial agreement, Reuters says. Both Harold and Sue Ann have each previously filed for divorce, although both motions were later dropped.
Source: Reuters
Harold says they've actually been estranged since 2005.
Sue Ann denies this, but charges Harold with "having an affair" that she discovered in 2010, prompting her to later file for divorce.
Source: Reuters
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