National Football Foundation

The epitome of an American success story, T. Boone Pickens came from humble beginnings to become one of the country's most lucrative entrepreneurs and Oklahoma State University's most generous alumnus.

As the founder and chairman of BP Capital, Pickens is responsible for the management of more than $4 billion, administering one of the nation's most successful energy-oriented investment funds. Nicknamed the "Oracle of Oil" by CNBC, Pickens started his career in the gas and oil industry, building Mesa Petroleum into the largest independent oil company in the country. He frequently uses his knowledge in the evaluation of potential equity investments and energy sector themes with an uncanny ability to accurately predict gas and oil prices.

Also invested in a wide range of other businesses, he is the largest private holder of permitted groundwater rights in the U.S. through Mesa Water, and another Pickens' investment, Mesa Power, is planning the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle.

An avid philanthropist, Pickens has given away more than $700 million, supporting educational initiatives, medical research, corporate wellness, at-risk youth, conservation and athletics. He has donated nearly $400 million to his alma mater. In 2005, the business tycoon donated $165 million to Oklahoma State, the largest single gift given to an NCAA athletics program in history. The athletic donation was aimed at creating an athletic village surrounding the football stadium that was renamed in his honor in 2003. Recently, he balanced the athletics gift with a $100 million gift for academics at Oklahoma State.  

In 1989, OSU's School of Geology was named for the Holdenville, Okla., native. Continually listed on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of top U.S. philanthropists, his $7 million donation to the American Red Cross in 2005 is the largest individual contribution in the 150-year history of the organization.

Pickens is a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the Texas Business Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Named one of Oil & Gas Investor's "100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum Century," he is a frequent guest on some of the nation's most-watched business programs and has appeared on the cover of Time and Fortune. Also a seasoned author, his next book "The First Billion Is the Hardest: How Believing It's Still Early in the Game Can Lead to Life's Greatest Comebacks," which takes a critical look at the problems facing the U.S. as a result of ever-escalating foreign oil import and lays out a comprehensive solution, will be released in the fall. Honored numerous times for his community service and humanitarian efforts, Pickens resides in Dallas.