Founder and President Oxbow Corporation – West Palm Beach, Florida
Bill Koch has been referred to by writers of late as “Captain America” owing to his tenacious campaign to keep the America’s Cup, the oldest trophy in sport and the grandest prize in yachting, on the American shore. Like his father and two of his brothers, Bill studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning three degrees in chemical engineering, a B.S., M.S., and a Sc.D. Koch helped found and serve as president of several firms, including Koch Venture Capital, which financed high-technology startup companies, and Koch Carbon, Inc., the world’s largest trader in petroleum coke. He also served as vice president of development at Koch Industries, one of the largest privately-held oil companies in the United States. In 1981, he left the company founded by his father and established his own petroleum company, along with a foundation that conducts medical research aimed at preventing coronary heart disease. In 1983, he founded the Oxbow Group of companies which was currently listed by Forbes magazine as the 97th largest privately held company in America. He serves as a trustee and member of the executive committee of the University Hospital in Boston. Formerly, he served as trustee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and as a member of the corporation of Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. Since capturing the America’s Cup, Koch has received numerous significant honors. Some of these include being named “Kansan of the Year” by the Kansas daily, the Topeka Capital-Journal, and “1992 Yachtmans of the Year” by the prestigious YACHTING magazine. “I’ve had more failures than successes, but what counts in the end is finishing first in the next race,” he said.
