Robert B. Rowling (born 1953) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman, and the Founder of TRT Holdings, the holding company of

Omni Hotels Omni Hotels & Resorts is an American privately held, international hotel company based in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 1958 as Dunfey Hotels, and operates 51 properties in the United States and Canada, totaling over 20,010 rooms and ...

Early life

A native of

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, T ...

, Rowling has an undergraduate degree from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

and a doctorate in jurisprudence from

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

Career

In 1972, Rowling began working for Tana Oil and Gas, which was owned by his father, Reese Rowling, and William E Colson. In 1989

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...

acquired Tana for $476 million, thereby providing money that was used to form TRT Holdings. Five years later, TRT Holdings sold Corpus Christi National Bank to

NationsBank NationsBank was one of the largest banking corporations in the United States, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company named NationsBank was formed through the merger of several other banks in 1991, and prior to that had been through mul ...

for $131 million. TRT Holdings would later purchase Omni Hotels for $500 million and

Gold's Gym Gold's Gym International, Inc. is an American chain of international wikt:co-ed, co-ed fitness centers (commonly referred to as gyms) originally started by Joe Gold in Venice, Los Angeles, Venice Beach, California. Each gym offers a variety of ca ...

for $180 million. In August 2010, Rowling made the winning bid to acquire the bankrupt

Amelia Island Plantation Omni Amelia Island Resort is a luxury resort community located on Amelia Island, Florida, the westernmost barrier island on the Atlantic Ocean in the U.S. The resort's tennis facility hosted the Bausch & Lomb Championships, a major Women's Ten ...

Resort for $67.1 million. In July 2013, Rowling purchased six resorts from KSL Resorts including The Homestead 1766 in Hot Springs, Virginia. Rowling served as a regent to the

University of Texas System The University of Texas System (UT System) is a public university system in the U.S. state of Texas. It includes nine universities and five independent health institutions. The UT System is headquartered in Downtown Austin. It is the large ...

until February 2009 when he resigned over a controversy regarding bonuses paid to the UTIMCO investment staff. Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 in the first administration of Donald Trump. He previously served as the 47th governor of Texas fr ...

and Texas state senators had sought to go back on compensation agreements with the staff. Unwilling to break the contracts and disgusted by their grandstanding, Rowling quit during a Texas Senate Finance Committee meeting and followed it up a day later with a formal letter of resignation As of July 2024, he is worth US$9.5 billion. He is the 82nd richest person in the United States.

Political activities

He is a conservative Republican and a major donor to the party. He is also one of four billionaire backers of the conservative political action group

American Crossroads American Crossroads is a US Super PAC that raises funds from donors to advocate for certain candidates of the Republican Party. It has pioneered many of the new methods of fundraising opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling in '' Citizens United ...

. According to an article published in ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', four

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Gold's Gym franchises split off from the brand after Rowling made a $2 million donation to Karl Rove's

PAC Pac or PAC may refer to: Aviation * IATA code PAC Albrook "Marcos A. Gelabert" International Airport in Panama City, Panama * Pacific Aerospace Corporation, New Zealand, manufacturer of aircraft: ** PAC 750XL ** PAC Cresco ** PAC CT/4 ** PA ...

, sparking protest from gay rights advocates. TRT Holdings has also given an additional $2.5 million from the company treasury this election cycle, according to public filings. He commented to Fox News, explaining that his donation to American Crossroads had nothing to do with social policies that could spark crossfire. "I've never heard one discussion of a social issue. This is all about fiscal sanity." In April 2020, Governor

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...

named Rowling to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Personal life

He is married to Terry Hennersdorf Rowling, they have two children, and live in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. They met when they were both studying for their bachelor's degrees in business at the University of Texas at Austin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowling, Robert 1953 births Living people University of Texas at Austin alumni Southern Methodist University alumni Businesspeople from Dallas American financiers American billionaires Texas Republicans Omni Hotels & Resorts