George Kaiser

George Bruce Kaiser (born July 29, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He chairs BOK Financial Corporation, a bank holding company with over $46 billion in assets, of which he owns approximately 59%, and serves as president and principal owner of GBK Corporation, parent to the oil and gas exploration firm Kaiser-Francis Oil Company, which he assumed control of in the 1960s.

Kaiser's fortune, valued at $14.4 billion as of October 2025, stems from expanding his family's oil business and acquiring the Bank of Oklahoma in 1991 for $60 million, transforming it into a regional powerhouse.

George Kaiser was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1942 to Jewish parents Herman George Kaiser and Kate Kaiser, who had escaped Nazi persecution in Germany. Herman, born in 1904, had practiced law and served as a judge in Germany prior to the Nuremberg Laws disbarring Jews in 1933, prompting the family's flight.

Herman adapted by partnering with Miller in the oil business, joining the dormant Francis Oil and Gas—founded by Miller in the 1920s—and helping transform it into Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. in the 1940s through deeper gas well drilling in western Kansas starting around 1948. This venture marked the family's entry into the U.S. energy sector, leveraging Herman's acumen amid post-war opportunities, though early operations focused on modest exploration rather than immediate wealth. The family's integration into Tulsa's Jewish community and civic life followed, with Herman emerging as a producer and leader by the 1950s.