Rodney Lewis

BP paid wildcatter Lewis $200 million in March 2010 to set up a joint venture to drill on 100,000 of his acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. He still controls another 300,000 acres in the area: "We have a 28-year head start in this area." He also has oilfields in Colombia and is the only American with a contract to drill for Pemex in Mexico, though latter has been called off because of border violence. In 1978 took a job driving 300 miles a day to check gauges on oil and gas wells. His commute improved after he paid $4,200 for a 65hp Aeronca Chief prop plane (he had gotten flying lessons from his father, an Air Force pilot). He soon started his own gauging business. In 1983 bought his first well for $13,000. He had no engineering degree--he trained as a mechanic and got a B.A. in criminal justice--but met a lot of teachers. "You wouldn't believe how much I learned just talking to the service guys who were working on somebody else's project." Then bought wells in gas-rich Dimmit and Webb counties, began drilling his own and building pipelines. Passion: owns 20 World War II fighter planes. Best known is Glacier Girl, a P-38 that crashed in Greenland during the war, only to be steamed out of ice 50 years later. Survived esophageal cancer. Bachelor of Arts / Science, Texas A&M International University