Regent Robert Rowling Official term: July 2004 - February 2011
Editor's Note: This is the 10th and final part of a series on each member of the UT System Board of Regents, the board of operating directors for all 15 UT campuses. All regents have been appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.
Simply put, Robert Rowling is one of the wealthiest human beings on the planet. In fact, Forbes Magazine listed Rowling as the No. 129 richest person in the world this year, with a net worth of more than $5.2 billion. In the state of Texas, only Michael Dell, Alice Walton (of Wal-Mart fame), Dan Duncan and Robert Bass have amassed more money.
Of course, this massive personal wealth makes Rowling a perfect candidate for the Board of Regents, and Gov. Perry appointed the Dallas businessman to the position in July 2004 to finish the term of outgoing chairman Charles Miller.
Back then, the Texan caricatured Rowling as the "financially invincible Super Regent," you know, because: "Where most regents are rich, he is richer. Where most regents are Bush supporters, he is Bushier. Where some regents have maintained a financial stake in the Texas oil industry, he is oilier."
In fact, Rowling even beats out most wealthy donors. He has roughly four times the wealth of car salesman and business school moniker Red McCombs.
Rowling graduated from the University in 1976 with a bachelor's in business administration and went to law school at Southern Methodist University. He sits in the minority of folks who have their family names etched in stone on campus: Reese M. Rowling Hall, on the east side of Royal-Memorial Stadium, houses the Touchdown Club and 62 stadium suites that each fetch around $75,000 every season.
That wing of the stadium was named after Rowling's father after the regent donated $5 million to athletics, in part to help construct the giant practice bubble for football on the corner of Red River and Dean Keeton streets.
Reese Rowling hired his son in 1972 to work with him at Tana Oil and Gas. Ten years later, the two founded the Teco Pipeline Company. They later sold most of Tana's assests to Texaco Inc. in 1989 for $476 million, forming the company TRT Holdings that same year.
Regent Rowling is currently the chairman of the board, director and owner of TRT Holdings, which has diversified its interests in the last few years. TRT bought Omni Hotels in 1996 (Rowling is its chairman), sold Corpus Christi National Bank in 1985 and bought Gold's Gym in 1994. The company also invested $25 million in the Mexican dollar store Waldo's in 2003, and still owns the Tana Holdings Corp. and Tana Exploration Company. The company also owns assets of GGI Holdings, Nueces Insurance Company and an aeronautical company.
TRT owns considerable real estate in Corpus Christi (about one-fifth of the surface area of downtown), where TRT was based until Rowling moved it to Irving in 1997. In April, TRT was negotiating with Corpus Christi to develop a seaside amusement park.
In the past, Rowling has sat on the corporate boards for NationsBank of Texas and the J.G. Boswell Company. Recent financial statements list major stock holdings (more than 10,000 shares) of the energy holdings company PG&E Corp., Bank of America and Horizon Oil Limited. He also holds more than 5,000 shares of ExxonMobil. He additionally receives income in excess of $25,000 a year from Conoco Phillips, North Central Oil, Kaler Energy, Blackstone Ivory and RRP, Inc.
Being appointed regent was Rowling's first step into the public sector, but he is no stranger to political influence. He was a Bush pioneer, pledging to raise more than $100,000 for the president's campaign, in both 2000 and 2004, and has donated heavily to state Republican leaders. Combined, Gov. Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott have been the beneficiaries of nearly $500,000 in Rowling donations over the past six years. He has given more than $1 million to Republican campaigns over the last decade.
Rowling has the air of a staid family man, and some of his actions with Omni Hotels reflect this. In 1999, he announced that Omni Hotels would turn down an estimated $4 million a year by discontinuing carrying pornography, because he did not want his children to think porn was a legitimate way to make money. In addition to his position with Young Life, he donates heavily to other Christian youth groups.
Through it all, he has been a deep-pocketed ally of Gov. Perry. Much like Regent Rita Clements, whose husband, former Gov. William Clements, donated $100,000 to Gov. Perry less than a year after Perry reappointed Clements to the board of regents, Rowling made a $100,000 donation of his own. On June 22, 2005, he cut Perry two checks that totaled the six-figure amount.
Be the first to comment on this article!