Aubrey McClendon

Aubrey McClendon
Born	Aubrey Kerr McClendon (1959-07-14) July 14, 1959 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Education	B.A. 1981
Alma mater	Duke University
Occupation(s)	Chairman & CEO, Chesapeake Energy Corp.
Political party	Republican
Board member of	Chesapeake Operating, Inc. Duke University Chaparral Energy Inc. EDF Trading North America, LLC Bronco Drilling Co. Inc. FTS International, Inc. ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. Deep Fork Capital Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.P. FTS International Services, LLC
Spouse	Katie McClendon
Children	Three
Parent	Joe Connor McClendon & Carole Kerr McClendon

Aubrey Kerr McClendon (born 1959 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is the chief executive officer, chairman, and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK). He is an outspoken advocate for natural gas as a cleaner and safer alternative to oil and coal fuels. He was the highest-paid CEO at all S&P 500 companies in 2008, receiving a compensation package totaling $112 million.

Early life and education

McClendon was born on July 14, 1959, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Joe Conner and Carole Kerr McClendon, and is a great-nephew of Robert S. Kerr, a former Oklahoma governor, U.S. Senator and founder of Kerr-McGee Corporation (an Oklahoma City-based oil and natural gas company founded in 1927 and acquired by Anadarko Corporation in 2006).

McClendon graduated from Duke University in 1981 with a B.A. in history and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He met his wife Katie, a 1980 Duke graduate, while attending college there. They married in St. Joseph, Michigan, in 1981 and have three adult children.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation

McClendon started his first oil and natural gas investment company, Chesapeake Investments, in 1982 at the age of 23. He co-founded Chesapeake with the company's former president Tom L. Ward, currently the CEO of Oklahoma City-based Sandridge Energy Corporation (NYSE:SD), in 1989 with a $50,000 initial investment. They took the company public in 1993, and today Chesapeake is the second-largest producer of natural gas, a Top 15 oil producer and the most active driller in the United States.

Focusing its operations onshore in the U.S., Chesapeake has pioneered development of unconventional natural gas and oil plays that require high-technology drilling and completion techniques and very large land positions. McClendon, who began his energy career as a landman, led the company to hold significant positions in the nation’s largest shale gas plays, the discovery of which has radically changed estimates of the U.S. supply of natural gas and reduced natural gas prices by 50% to American consumers since 2008, while providing a daily economic stimulus to the U.S. economy of approximately $300 million.

McClendon is chairman of the Chesapeake Board of Directors, which, among others, includes prominent Oklahoma politicians Frank Keating and Don Nickles. In 2005 McClendon was named one of America's top-performing executives by Forbes Magazine. He was the highest paid CEO at all S&P 500 companies in 2008, receiving a compensation package totaling $112 million, which included a one-time payment of $75 million in recognition of the role he played in developing multiple joint ventures with foreign industry partners, which started a trend of foreign investment in the U.S. natural gas industry that has lowered natural gas costs for consumers and created thousands of new jobs in the natural gas industry. Chesapeake is the largest leasehold owner in the U.S. with approximately 14 million net acres under lease, and owns a Top 2 position in each of the Barnett, Haynesville/Bossier, Marcellus and Utica natural gas plays and in each of the Granite Wash, Cleveland, Tonkawa, Mississippian, Avalon, Wolfcamp, Bone Spring, Eagle Ford, Niobrara and Utica oil and natural gas liquids plays.

It was announced on October 10, 2008, that McClendon sold approximately 33.4 million shares, approximately 90% of his stock in Chesapeake Energy (stock symbol CHK), for $16.52 per share to meet a margin call after the drop in the U.S. stock market that week. The stock had been worth as much as $74.00 per share in the year prior to the sale, a loss of nearly $1.92 billion. McClendon was shortly thereafter awarded a controversial one-off $75 million 'Well Cost Incentive Award' by the board of directors. The award was subsequently challenged by way of a shareholder proposal and a number of lawsuits.

In 2010, McClendon began directing the company’s transition toward more balanced production, with the goal of having 50% of its revenues come from oil production by the end of 2013. In 2010, McClendon was a finalist for the Platts Global Energy CEO of the Year Awards, with the company a finalist for awards in the categories of Deal of the Year, Industry Leadership, Energy Producer of the Year and Community Development Program of the Year. Platts also awarded Chesapeake Energy with Producer of the Year and Industry Leadership awards in 2009; and Hydrocarbon Producer of the Year in 2007.

In early 2011, McClendon was named to the Forbes “CEO 20-20 Club,” a group of eight American chief executives who have a minimum of 20 years of service as CEO and produced at least 20% annual returns to shareholders during their tenure.

In November 2011, McClendon was named the Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 Energy, Cleantech and Natural Resources Award winner. According to the Ernst & Young, McClendon was recognized for redefining Chesapeake’s focus and strategy, taking it from its small-time Oklahoma origins to its current position as the second-largest producer of natural gas and the most active driller of new wells in the U.S.

In April 2012 a Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholder sued McClendon and members of the board of directors for McClendon's borrowing up to $1.1 billion in personal loans from the company to finance his own stake in the company's natural gas wells.

Natural gas advocacy

McClendon is known as an outspoken advocate for the expanded use of natural gas as a cleaner alternative than oil for transportation fuel and coal electric power generation. On November 14, 2010, McClendon appeared on 60 Minutes, making a case for natural gas as a clean fuel and a significant job-creating industry. He also defended the natural gas and oil industry’s use of hydraulic fracturing techniques for well completion.

McClendon is the chairman of the board for American Clean Skies Foundation, a non-profit foundation that educates the public on clean energy sources. He also is a founding member of America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), a Washington, D.C.-based trade organization of independent natural gas producers.

NBA Oklahoma City Thunder

McClendon is affiliated with The Professional Basketball Club LLC (PBC), which owns the NBA Oklahoma City Thunder club, as a 20% investor.

In 2008, the NBA fined McClendon $250,000 for comments he made in The (Oklahoma City) Journal Record about his hopes of moving the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma City. Specifically, his statement that the ownership group "didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle." PBC Chairman Clayton Bennett stated that McClendon does not speak for the OKC Thunder franchise (then the Seattle Supersonics) in any official capacity, and therefore was simply stating his own personal opinions. Emails between McClendon, Tom Ward, and Bennett revealed that all three men intended to move the team to Oklahoma City even during the one-year grace period in which PBC was contractually obligated to pursue a "good faith effort" to keep the team in Seattle. Subsequently, the City of Seattle decided to settle with PBC shortly before a verdict would have been rendered as to whether PBC could escape their lease with Key Arena, and the team moved to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season where it was renamed the Thunder and has become one of the NBA’s leaders in attendance and has developed into one of its best young teams, led by 2011 All-Star forward Kevin Durant and point guard Russell Westbrook.

Saugatuck Township Settlement

From 2004 to 2006, McClendon bought 400 acres of undeveloped duneland fronting Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township, Michigan, for $39.5 million with plans to build luxury homes, 28 condos, a hotel, a marina and a golf course. In 2006, prior to McClendon finalizing the sale but after McClendon had signed contracts to purchase and without notice to McClendon, the Saugatuck Township Board rezoned the land to R-4, severely restricting the use of the land and requiring a PUD for any development, generally treating this land in a different fashion than any other land in Saugatuck Township. The Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance opposes McClendon's plans, citing environmental concerns. In 2009, McClendon sold 171 acres of the land to a conservancy. In March 2010, McClendon sued the township in federal court to overturn the zoning. In July 2011, McClendon and the Township Board submitted a proposed Consent Agreement to the court for approval. In November 2011, Judge Maloney rejected the proposed Consent Agreement, but outlined a way for the parties to proceed toward a conclusion of the litigation.

Other interests

McClendon has been highly involved in the architecture of Chesapeake’s headquarters campus in Oklahoma City as well as his other private building endeavors in Oklahoma City. Working exclusively with Oklahoma City-based award-winning architect Rand Elliott, Chesapeake’s 50-acre Oklahoma City headquarters campus has won more than 24 national and international design awards since 2003.

Between 2000-04, McClendon donated $700,000 to a variety of Republican candidates and conservative interest groups. Most notable of these was a $250,000 donation to Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, a group whose purpose was to oppose John Kerry's candidacy for the presidency in 2004. McClendon's donation made him the eighth-largest contributor to the group.

In 2007 McClendon bought several full-page ads supporting the Duke men's lacrosse team in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case. The case was ultimately dismissed, and the Durham County prosecutor who brought the case was forced to resign and was disbarred.

McClendon is one of the nation’s 100 largest land owners according the magazine Land Report and is the largest investor in Bloomington, Indiana-based ProCure Treatment Centers, the world's leader in commercializing a revolutionary cancer treatment using proton therapy.

He also is owner of the iconic POPS restaurant located on historic Route 66 in Arcadia, Oklahoma, which features the world's largest collection (more than 500 varieties) of soda pops for sale at one site. POPS has won numerous architectural awards and has been featured in a wide variety of magazines and television shows since it opened in 2007.

In addition, McClendon is noted for his philanthropic generosity, having donated more than $75 million in the past 15 years to a variety of institutions, most notable of which have been Duke University in Durham, N.C.; Heritage Hall and Casady college preparatory private high schools in Oklahoma City, and the University of Oklahoma, where in 2008 the university’s Honors College was named in honor of his parents.