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Founders

#378 The Last Oil Baron: Leon Hess

Feb 10, 2025 · 53m
AI Summary
  • Leon Hess built his 'little fuel delivery business' with one used truck during the Depression into a multibillion-dollar vertically integrated energy behemoth
  • His father's bankruptcy and childhood poverty at 50 cents per day motivated him to seize opportunities others missed, expanding from fuel delivery to storage, refining, and gas stations across 16 states
  • Hess's military experience as General Patton's fuel supply officer taught him logistics efficiency, which he applied to build the Western Hemisphere's largest refinery and eventually buy the New York Jets

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