10 Things You Didn’t Know about Oneok CEO Terry Spencer

Before one knows where the future is headed, it can be quite a journey; some will try their hand in everything and end up in what does not fail, while others have one specific career in mind and head there no matter what. For Terry Spencer, he has been in the natural gas industry for so long, and it is like he has always known that is where he should be since he has never sought any other jobs but only those that are in the natural gas industry. Apart from being headstrong, here are other facts about Oneok CEO Terry Spencer that might interest you.

1. He has a net worth of $43 million

Terry K Spencer has accumulated wealth over the years, and by mid-February 2019, he had a net worth estimated to be at least $43 million. Although he gets paid handsomely, most of his wealth is from the stock units he owns. Currently, Terry has more than 242,296 units of stock of ONEOK, and they are worth over 37,360,137 million dollars. That is quite a significant amount considering in the last couple of years he has not sold any of the stock, meaning the net worth could have been higher.

2. He earns over $5 million as salary

Terry holds several positions at Oneok; he is the Chief Executive Officer, President, and Director of Oneok as well as its subsidiary, Oneok Partners BP, L.L.C. He earns a salary of $5,608,940 and no other executives at the company receive higher pay than him.

3. Terry has made wealth from insider trading

Since 2017, Terry has made three trades at least of the Oneok stock as per the Form 4 he filled with the SEC. His largest trade so far was on 17 February 2019 when he exercised 246,296 Oneok stock units that were worth at least $16,649,610. Since 2017, he trades around 45,722 stock units in every 91 days.

4. He joined the company in 2001

Terry has been working at Oneok since 2001 when he joined as the director of project development, natural gas gathering, and processing. He has risen his way to the top since he later became the Vice President of the natural gas supply and project development in the division of natural gas gathering and processing and held other positions along the way before becoming the CEO and president.

5. 2016 was a challenging year for his career

In the 2016 Earnings Conference Call by Oneok Partners, LP, Terry disclosed that the year had been one of the most challenging in his job due to the low commodity price environment that had stuck in the industry for a while. However, he was glad that amidst the tough times, the company had prevailed and was looking forward to growth opportunities in the subsequent year.

6. He is 58 years old

Terry is 58 years old meaning he became CEO at 53 years. He is still among the younger executives since only five are younger than him while 11 are older with Gary Parker being the oldest executive at the company at 71 years of age; he is an independent director.

7. He assisted employees during Hurricane Harvey

Oneok has a charitable organization, Oneok Foundation, which helps employees during times of personal crisis. During Hurricane Harvey, the foundation contributed $500,000 from which $300,000 was donated to the American Red Cross in Greater Houston. The rest of the money was to support the employees and families that had been affected by the disaster with Terry saying that it had impacted Oneok employees directly.

8. Terry has a degree in petroleum

Terry must have known what he wanted to be, or rather which sector he wanted to end up in from the academic and career choices. He went to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where he studied petroleum engineering and earned himself a Bachelor of Science degree in the same upon graduating in 1981.

9. He worked in three companies before joining Oneok

Before working at Oneok, Spencer had held other jobs with increasing responsibility, still in the natural gas gathering and processing industry. He worked for Continental Natural Gas Inc. in Tulsa, Houston’s Stellar Gas Company and Dallas’ Delhi Gas Pipeline, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Texas Oil and Gas Corporation.

10. Terry is a member of the BOD at Gas Processors Association

Terry is not only a member of the Board of Directors of Gas Processors Association (GPA); he is also a member of the finance and executive committee of the board. GPA’s objective is to create industry standards regarding technology and procedures employed in processing natural gas.