Robert Orville Anderson (April 12, 1917 – December 2, 2007) was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist who founded Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).

Anderson also supported several cultural organizations, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to Harper's Magazine.

[1] Anderson turned ARCO into the United States' sixth-largest oil company by the time he left in 1986 due to mandatory retirement.

He was by then the largest individual landowner in the United States, with ranches and other holdings in Texas and New Mexico amounting to some 2,000 square miles (5,200 km2) and a personal fortune estimated at $200 million.

He entered the top ranks of independent oil producers in 1957 with a major find at the Empire-Abo field in New Mexico.

In 1967, he approved recommendations from ARCO Alaska staff including geologists Marvin Mangus and John M. Sweet.

By the time he and ARCO moved to LA, the Atlantic Richfield Company Corporate Art Collection had grown to more than 3,000 works, consisting of original paintings, drawings, sculpture, limited edition prints and signed photographs.

The centerpiece of ARCO Plaza is the Sculpture Fountain designed by Bayer, entitled Double Ascension.

The collection was displayed throughout ARCO buildings, on both executive and working floors, in common areas, lobbies and offices as well as in many file and copy-machine rooms.

Upon mandatory retirement from ARCO in 1986, Anderson left to form Hondo Oil & Gas Company, Roswell, New Mexico, where he served as chairman and chief executive officer from September 1986 to February 1994.

[1] Anderson served as chairman of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, which convenes business executives and others to discuss world problems.