Bill Haslam
Knoxville, Tennessee
Bachelor of Arts/Science, Emory University
United States
3
truck stops
$1,900,000,000
1281
#1281 Billionaires 2019
#324 Forbes 400 2017
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam was the president of his family's chain of truck stops, Pilot Flying J, for four years until 1999.Bill's father bought a gas station in Virginia in 1958 and founded Pilot Flying J, which now operates in more than 750 locations in North America.In October 2017, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced it would acquire 39% of Pilot for a reported $2.7 billion and then another 41% by 2023.Haslam was elected the mayor of Knoxville in 2003 and became governor in 2010. He is the second richest politician in the U.S., after President Trump.Pilot admitted to defrauding its customers in a $92 million settlement with the U.S. Dept. Of Justice in 2014. Its sales hit $19.6 billion in 2016.
His brother Jimmy Haslam bought the Cleveland Browns for roughly $990 million in 2012. The team is now worth more than $1.6 billion.Bill told the magazine at Emory College, his alma mater, that when he was an undergraduate, he thought there was no way he would go into politics.
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