Apache Corporation is an independent energy company that explores for, develops and produces natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids. Our mission is to grow a profitable company for the long-term benefit of our shareholders by building a portfolio of core areas which provide long-term growth opportunities.
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Raymond Plank
Founder and retired chairman of the board
RAYMOND PLANK retired Jan. 15, 2009. Mr. Plank was chairman of the board from 1979 to Jan. 15, 2009, chief executive officer from 1966 until 2002 and president from 1954 to 1979. He founded the company in 1954.
Mr. Plank has been consistently active in civic, educational and business affairs. He founded the Fund for Teachers, which provides summer travel and enrichment grants to kindergarten through 12th grade teachers. He is on the board of trustees of the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming and the Washington, D.C.-based Committee for Economic Development. He served as chairman of the Wyoming Futures Project and the Minneapolis Heart Institute, and co-chairman of Minnesota Wellspring. He also has been a member of the Denver Art Museum board of trustees.
He has been a trustee of Carleton College where Apache established the Raymond Plank Chair in Incentive Economics, and he is past chairman of the University of Minnesota Foundation.
Mr. Plank graduated from Yale University in 1944 with a bachelor of arts degree. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Army Air Corps as a bomber pilot in the South Pacific Theater of Operations.
Read more: Apache founder Raymond Plank retires, begins next chapter