Harold Hamm

Harold Glenn Hamm (born December 11, 1945) is an American entrepreneur in the oil and gas business. He is known for extracting shale oil resources. As of February 4, 2022, Hamm's net worth is estimated to be US$16.2 billion, making him the 63rd wealthiest person in the United States and the 121st wealthiest person in the world. He is the founder and chairman of Continental Resources. In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Hamm as his energy advisor, and Hamm donated to and advised Romney's election effort.

In 1967, he founded Shelly Dean Oil Company, which would later become Continental Resources. The company pioneered the development of the Bakken oil field in North Dakota and Montana using horizontally drilled wells and hydraulic fracturing. When Continental Resources grew into a major oil producer, Hamm became a billionaire. Continental Resources, known for its use of shale oil, is Oklahoma's fourth-largest public company.

Shortly after being named energy advisor to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in March 2012, Hamm donated $985,000 to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future.

In January 2016, Hamm claimed that Saudi Arabia was unsuccessfully attempting to "flood the crude market at a time of oversupply."

At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Hamm criticized the Obama administration's energy policies, claiming that Obama was "burdening oil companies with greater regulations" so that gasoline prices would spike. Hamm also denounced the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Department of State in 2015, asserting that Iran would be more able to export petroleum and develop an atomic bomb.

In the 2016 United States presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump considered appointing Hamm as energy secretary.

Hamm has honorary degrees from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.

The Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma was named after Hamm, who has type 2 diabetes. To create the center, the Harold and Sue Ann Hamm Foundation donated $10 million. Hamm is a member of the Global Leadership Council at the Offutt School of Business of Concordia College, Moorhead.

On February 1, 2022, the Harold Hamm Foundation and Continental Resources announced a $12 million gift to the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, to establish the Hamm School of Engineering and endow a "Continental Resources | Monsignor James Shea Chair of Engineering" at the private, Catholic university. It is believed to be the largest philanthropic single gift given to education in the region of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, the footprint of the Bakken formation.