Richard Kinder Biography and Net Worth

Richard Kinder is an American businessman and the co-founder and executive chairman of oil and gas pipeline giant, Kinder Morgan Inc. He stepped down from his role as the company's CEO in 2015.

Kinder was born and raised in Missouri, and he received both his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Missouri. He also served in Vietnam as a Captain in the U.S. Army.

His career began as an attorney for the Florida Gas Transmission, which, after a series of mergers, became the Enron Corporation. Kinder had known Enron founder, Kenneth Lay, in college. 

Kinder served as Enron’s president and COO from 1990 to 1996, when he resigned to found his pipeline company alongside another college friend, William V. Morgan. The pair acquired Enron Liquids Pipeline for $40 million, and after numerous other mergers and acquisitions, Kinder Morgan grew to become one of the largest energy infrastructure firms in North America, owning or operating 84,000 miles of pipeline.

In his role as executive chairman, Kinder has been responsible for the development and execution of the company’s vision and strategy, along with the allocation of capital. Throughout his tenure, it has grown from a small company of 175 employees and a $325 million valuation to a successful corporation of over 11,000 employees.

Kinder Morgan has been listed among Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Companies in America, and it was also recognized as the top company across industries for “Quality of Management.”

Kinder himself is a past recipient of Morningstar’s CEO of the Year award, and he is well-known for his service and philanthropy, sitting on numerous corporate and non-profit boards. He is the current chairman of the board of trustees for the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

In 1997, he established the Kinder Foundation with his wife, Nancy, to support education, urban green space, and other quality of life initiatives in his home of Houston, Texas. 

Through the foundation, the couple gave $15 million in 2010 to support Rice University’s institute for urban research, now named The Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The foundation has supported a variety of other projects, including the Bush Center at Southern Methodist University, the Houston Food Bank, and the Texas Heart Institute.

Kinder has also made significant donations to his alma mater, the University of Missouri, including a $25 million donation in 2015 to support studies of the U.S. constitution through the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy.

Additionally, he has supported and campaigned for several Republican presidential tickets, including Bush-Quayle in 1992, Bush-Cheney in 2004, and McCain-Palin in 2008. He also supported the campaigns of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Representative Tom DeLay.