G eorge Kaiser is an American billionaire who is the chairman of the BOK Financial Corporation. His family fled Nazi Germany and settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his father founded the Kaiser-Francis Oil Company. George inherited the family's oil business and vastly expanded it, building a major independent oil and gas exploration and production company. This formed the basis of his immense fortune.

He later diversified his business interests, most notably by acquiring a controlling stake in the Bank of Oklahoma (now BOK Financial) when it was failing in the 1990s and building it into a major regional bank. He is now one of the most prominent and influential philanthropists in the United States. He has signed the Giving Pledge and has channeled the majority of his wealth into his George Kaiser Family Foundation, which is focused on tackling intergenerational poverty through investments in early childhood education. He has also been the driving force behind the creation of the Gathering Place, a world-class public park in his hometown of Tulsa.