Farris Wilks

About Farris Wilks

Farris and his brother Dan 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.

The brothers began their careers as stone masons, like their father, founding Wilks Masonry in 1995.

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.