How did the owner of the Texas Rangers make his money?

Ray Davis is a self-made billionaire who co-founded the natural gas distributor and pipeline company Energy Transfer in 1995. He built the company into a giant and stepped down as co-CEO in 2007 but still owns 2.4% of the publicly traded company.

Energy Transfer operates over 125,000 miles of pipeline that move approximately 30% of America’s oil and natural gas. Ray Davis is also the majority owner, managing partner, and chairman of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.

In 2010, he teamed up with the founder of XTO Energy, Bob Simpson, to buy the team for $593 million. In 1991, Ray Davis tried his luck as CEO of publicly traded dental supplies distributor Healthco, but the company filed for bankruptcy in 1993.

In 2008, Ray Davis made his first appearance on the Forbes 400 list, ranking 367th with a net worth of $1 billion. In 2012, he ranked 315th with a net worth of $1.5 billion, and he ranked 296th in 2013 with a net worth of $1.9 billion.