Harold Hamm Net Worth
Net Worth: $17 Billion
Category: Richest Business › Richest Billionaires
Birthdate: December 11, 1945 (78 years old)
Birthplace: Lexington, Oklahoma, USA
Gender: Male
Profession: Businessperson
Nationality: United States
Harold Hamm is an American oilman and businessman with a net worth of $17 billion. He is best known as the founder and chairman of Continental Resources, a major natural gas and petroleum company based in Oklahoma City. Hamm has been a prominent figure in the oil industry, particularly for his work in extracting tight oil resources through directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Early Life
Harold Hamm was born on December 11, 1945, in Lexington, Oklahoma, as the 13th and youngest child of cotton sharecroppers Leland and Jane Hamm.
Continental Resources
Hamm founded the Shelly Dean Oil Company, named after his two daughters, at the age of 21 in 1967. The company was later renamed Continental Resources in 1990. One of its significant achievements was the discovery of the Cedar Hills Field in North Dakota, one of the largest onshore fields in the US, developed using only directional drilling.
Continental Resources became a leader in developing the Bakken Formation, a large rock unit in North Dakota and Montana. In 2004, the company completed the first commercially successful well in the Bakken using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
The company went public in 2007, with Hamm selling around $300 million worth of shares. Continental Resources continued to innovate and expand, selling various assets and acquiring new ones, including a $3.25 billion transaction for leasehold and royalty acres in the Permian Basin in 2021.
Divorce Settlement
In 2013, Harold Hamm and his wife Sue Ann Hamm went through a highly publicized and potentially record-setting divorce. Sue Ann filed for divorce in 2012 after 25 years of marriage, citing Harold’s infidelity. The divorce could have resulted in an $8-9 billion settlement. However, in November 2014, an Oklahoma judge ordered Harold to pay Sue Ann $1 billion, with $300 million due by the end of 2014 and the remaining balance in monthly installments.
Politics
Hamm has been active in politics, serving as an energy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012 and donating $985,000 to Romney’s campaign. He also spoke against President Obama at the 2016 Republican National Convention, criticizing regulations on oil companies and the Iran nuclear deal.
Philanthropy
Through the Harold and Sue Ann Hamm Foundation, Hamm has made significant philanthropic contributions, including creating the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma and donating $12 million to the University of Mary in North Dakota to establish the Hamm School of Engineering.
Honors and Awards
Hamm has received numerous accolades, including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007, the International Energy Policy Conference’s Energy Advocate of the Year in 2009, and induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2011. He also received the Horatio Alger Award and Platts Global Energy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Personal Life
Hamm had three children with his first wife, Judith Ann, before divorcing in 1987. He married Sue Ann Arnall in 1988, with whom he separated in 2005 and divorced in 2014. Hamm resides in Oklahoma City and owns properties in Nichols Hills and Enid, Oklahoma.
