Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. was created in the 1940s by Kaiser's uncle and parents, Jewish[7][8] refugees from Nazi Germany who settled in Oklahoma.
He and his wife Kate then moved to Rostock where Herman Kaiser worked with his father-in-law Max Samuel's EMSA-Werke company.
He has since expanded BOK from a 20-branch company located solely in Oklahoma into a $23.9 billion bank with operations in nine states.
[15] In April 2014, Kaiser bought Tom L. Ward's interest in The Professional Basketball Club, the investment group headed by Clay Bennett that owns the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association, as well as its Oklahoma City Blue minor league affiliate.
[21][22] Among his prominent causes is fighting childhood poverty through the George Kaiser Family Foundation; he is also a major benefactor to the Jewish community in Oklahoma, which numbers about 5,000 people.
[34] In January 2009, Kaiser drew attention after he told a committee of the Oklahoma House of Representatives that the state should eliminate or reduce tax incentives for the oil and gas industry, and instead use the money for health care or education programs or for tax cuts for other taxpayers.
[35][36] The foundation was instrumental in the funding of Tulsa's Woody Guthrie Center, which opened in 2013, and then in facilitating (together with the University of Tulsa) the acquisition in 2016 of Bob Dylan's 6,000-piece archive, which will be maintained by archivists at the university's Helmerich Center for American Research at Gilcrease Museum.
[37] The Kaiser family foundation is responsible for the initial funding leading to Tulsa's A Gathering Place.
The company has revealed that the foundation invested $340 million in the venture in July 2009, and subsequently gave preferential consideration to a plant site proposed for an economically depressed area of North Tulsa.
[39][40][41][42] Kaiser's philanthropy focuses on stimulating economic growth and combatting poverty with investments in early education and health care for people who need it the most.
An article in Forbes quoted him as saying "Those who have won the ovarian lottery by being born in an advanced society to loving parents have a special obligation to help restore the American Dream.
Before he became involved in funding health care, he was informed that there was a 14-year difference in life expectancy between children born in richest and poorest ZIP codes.
His foundation then donated $62 million to the University of Oklahoma to create a School of Community Medicine at its Tulsa campus.