H ope Welker is an American heiress to the fortune of her late grandfather, Dan Duncan, the founder of the massive pipeline company Enterprise Products Partners. Dan Duncan was a self-made Texas oilman who built Enterprise into one of the largest midstream energy companies in North America, with a vast network of pipelines, storage facilities, and processing plants for natural gas and crude oil.

Upon his death in 2010, his immense fortune was passed on to his four children, including Hope's mother, Randa Duncan Williams. Randa now serves as the non-executive chairman of the company. Hope, along with her siblings, is a beneficiary of the family trusts that hold a massive stake in the publicly traded energy giant. Her wealth is derived from this inherited stake in the enduring and highly profitable pipeline empire her grandfather created.