Leon Hess

“Sam Bronfman and Leon Hess both started multi-billion dollar family dynasties. And both started by fixing the mistakes of their father.”

“He's actually having to negotiate with like a representative of Gaddafi in Libya. And right in the middle of a negotiation, the guy just pulls out a gun and puts his pistol on, on the tape on the table between them.”

“I always think of this maxim that repeats throughout the history of entrepreneurship, that you can always understand the son by the story of his father, the story of the father is embedded in the son.”

“He gave all of his business to chase because of the effort they put into building the relationship with them. He says they were the only ones who ever paid any attention to me. The rest of the banks never took me seriously.”

“Leon is very unusual for most of the oil barons that you might read about because essentially he works backwards to the source. A lot of people, you know, they write a ton of books about the people that are actually discovering oil, right? He actually, Leon co…”

“Unlike his competitors, the Hess station attendants didn't change your oil. They didn't carry batteries, tires, or windshield wipers, or have car mechanics on site. And for a long time, they wouldn't even take credit cards Because Leon felt that slowed the ref…”

“Leon actually serves as the fuel supply officer for General Patton.”

“Leon actually acquires a 20% stake in the New York Jets. They weren't even called the New York Jets yet in 1963 for which he paid 250,000 dollars.”

“The reason we call Hess the last oil baron is that we believe him to be the last of his kind. The last man who could create a multi-billion dollar multinational vertically integrated energy behemoth that could do everything from finding oil in far-flung fields…”

“Back to Leon's impressive attention to detail, he could recite the margin of every gasoline station on the East Coast.”

“He has to write a letter to shareholders because the regulations in the oil industry are changing. So I just want to read some excerpts from this letter to the shareholders. He goes in the hope of obtaining a benefit for our corporation. I made a series of pay…”

“He ran a facility with 400 people where other companies would have used twice as many workers.”

“So the refinery is able to secure foreign refiner status, which allows it to circumvent federal rules that require the use of higher cost U.S. Flagged vessels. When shipping oil to the East coast, while simultaneously at the same time, also receiving subsidies…”

“He ran essentially, this was like a family venture for eight years. It just happened to be one of the, I think it was like the 14th most valuable oil company in the world.”

“So let's start the dawn of the 20th century when Rockefeller was at his peak, right? Production was a 174,000 barrels a day. Even at that size that can make Rockefeller probably the richest person on the planet, right? You fast forward 45 years where we are in…”

“So he starts his little oil company in 1933. Leon is 19 years old.”

“So Leon realizes that he could sell what was called number six fuel oil. It's called residual oil. It's called black oil. Essentially. It's this heavy, almost like molasses thick Oil that other refiners are just throwing away. So Leon's plan to say, I'm going …”