Richard Kinder

[6] He began his career in the energy business as an attorney with Florida Gas Transmission,[4] which eventually became Enron Corporation, after a series of mergers[8] He had been friends with its founder, Kenneth Lay, in college.

[4] After a number of acquisitions, the most prominent being El Paso Corporation, Kinder Morgan became the largest midstream energy company in North America.

A Republican, he campaigned for Bush-Quayle in 1992, for Bush-Cheney in 2004, for John McCain in 2008, and for Kay Bailey Hutchison and Tom DeLay.

Prior to leaving Enron in 1996, McNeil was Ken Lay's assistant and was a member of Rudy Giuliani's presidential committee from 2007 to 2008.

[7] The Kinders founded the Kinder Foundation in an effort to support Greater Houston as a model city for economic and quality of life by providing transformation grants in the areas of urban green space, education and quality of life.

[23] In November 2020, the museum’s new Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for modern and contemporary art opened to the public.

[24] The Kinder Foundation actively supports the community development and preservation of Houston's historic Third Ward.

It provided $750,000 for the Emancipation Park Conservancy's rededication of Emancipation Park in 2016,[25] $2 million in 2018 to PRH Preservation, Inc. to maintain and enhance existing buildings in the Third Ward to ensure safe, affordable housing for residents,[26] and $1.5 million to the Law Harrington Senior Living Center in July 2019 to establish an affordable independent living center for LGBTQ-affirming seniors in the Third Ward,[27] among other gifts to Third Ward organizations.

[36] In November 2019, the foundation granted an additional $10 million to support new degree opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy and the College of Arts and Science.

[38] In 2015, Kinder and his wife Nancy donated $2 million to a Super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.