Dan Wilks

About Dan Wilks

Dan and his brother Farris got a combined $3.5 billion (pretax) in 2011 selling their fracking company to a group led by Singapore-based firm Temasek.

The brothers have acquired more than 672,000 acres of land in six different states across the West, becoming America's 12th-largest landowners.

They first founded Wilks Masonry in 1995, following in their stone mason father's footsteps.

In 2002 they went into fracking, launching Frac Tech and growing it into an oil and natural gas giant before cashing out less than a decade later.

The brothers are also investing in oil and gas businesses, including fracking company U.S. Well Services and data provider Dawson Geophysical Company.