Purchaser of OPUBCO has widespread interests

Anschutz's company entered the railroad business in 1984 with its purchase of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Later the company purchased the Southern Pacific Railroad, which merged into the Union Pacific Railroad. He currently owns a small interest in Union Pacific, less than 5 percent.

Newspaper holdings include the San Francisco Examiner and Washington Examiner. He also owns The Weekly Standard magazine, which focuses on national politics. Anschutz owns them through Clarity Media Group.

He also owns Examiner.com, one of the fastest-growing social networking and local news and information sites, where local subject-matter experts post a wide array of information in hundreds of markets throughout the United States and Canada.

People who know Anschutz say family values are important to him, and those values are reflected in motion picture projects he produces through the Anschutz Film Group.

Walden Media, one of the group's divisions, acquired the film rights to the C.S. Lewis series “The Chronicles of Narnia” and has so far produced “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Prince Caspian,” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

Another film division, Bristol Bay Productions, produced “Ray,” a movie about the life of singer Ray Charles.

Many of Anschutz's interests parallel those of Oklahomans.

Anschutz loves Western art and has an extensive collection that includes works by the Western Masters — Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell and Thomas Hart Benton.

He will be adding to that collection with the purchase of OPUBCO, because an extensive art collection by the Western Masters is part of the deal.

Anschutz got his business start in the oil and gas industry and has extensive holdings in various parts of the U.S. through Anschutz Exploration Corp., an independent oil and gas exploration company.

Wind energy has become big business in recent years, and Anschutz has business interests in that arena, as well, through The Anschutz Corp.'s ownership of Power Company of Wyoming LLC and TransWest Express LLC.

Power Company of Wyoming is developing an approximately 2,500-megawatt wind power project on about 100,000 acres in Carbon County, Wyo.

Meanwhile, TransWest Express is developing a proposed 725-mile direct current high-voltage transmission system to move electricity from Wyoming to markets in Arizona, Nevada and California.

Anschutz has extensive ranch and farm operations in Wyoming, Colorado and Texas.

Through The Anschutz Foundation, he has also developed a reputation as a generous philanthropist.

The Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., and the secular Foundation for a Better Life both have been among the beneficiaries of his generosity.