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Podcast

#378 the Last Oil Baron- Leon Hess

Founders

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  • Mackey’s Regret
    • John Mackey claimed Founders Podcast would’ve kept Whole Foods independent.
    • He emphasized the podcast’s consistent focus on cost control. Transcript: David Senra Leon Hess could recite the margins of every gasoline station on the East Coast. John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, could do the same for every Whole Foods store. I actually spent a few days with John Mackey, and he told me one of the craziest things that anyone has ever said about the podcast. (Time 0:00:00)
  • Permanent Savings
    • Control costs strictly, especially during booms.
    • Cost savings are permanent, unlike fluctuating profits. Transcript: David Senra During boom times, it’s very natural for a company and for human nature to just not watch your costs as closely because everything is going so well. This is something that History’s Greatest Founders would warn a guest. In fact, Andrew Carnegie would repeat this mantra time and time again. He would say, profits and prices were cyclical, subject to any number of transient forces of the marketplace. (Time 0:00:33)
  • Father’s Influence
    • Leon Hess’s success was largely shaped by his father’s entrepreneurial failures.
    • Understanding a son’s story often requires understanding his father’s. Transcript: David Senra I want to start the story of Leon Hess. I think the best way to start the story of Leon Hess is actually talking about his father and really the failures of his father that led to, in large part, that led to the success of his son. (Time 0:05:04)
  • Unconventional Education
    • Leon Hess’s father’s bankruptcy during the Great Depression prevented him from attending college.
    • Despite this, Leon thrived in a technical business through practical experience. Transcript: David Senra I always think of this maxim that repeats throughout the history of entrepreneurship, that you can always understand the son by the story of his father, the story of the father is embedded In the son. So Leon’s dad was a failed entrepreneur, said Leon’s dad dabbled in many things, but never had great success at any of them. He had strong entrepreneur energy and he tried his hand on a lot of things. He tried to sell produce and he opened a bunch of butcher shops and he tried in real estate. And finally he tried to deliver coal. So Leon’s dad begins a small coal distribution business in New Jersey. This is very important. Without his dad doing this and then Leon realizing that they were in the wrong business, there would be no Hess Oil Corporation. So during the Great Depression, Leon’s dad actually goes bankrupt. (Time 0:05:18)
  • Pivotal Shift
    • At 19, Leon Hess recognized the declining coal business and switched to fuel oil delivery.
    • This pivotal decision mirrored Sam Bronfman’s shift from horse trading to liquor. Transcript: David Senra There’s stories of him popping up at plants at two in the morning to check on things to make sure everything’s going well. Now, there’s something that’s, I think this is one of the most important parts of the book, is he’s going to start this company at 19 years old, right? He’s going to get into the fuel delivery business. So the reason I think this is one of the most important parts of Leon’s life story is because Leon realizes that his dad picked the wrong business. This also shows how shrewd and smart Leon was from a young age because he’s like, the coal business is a dead end. We’re hauling these hundred pound bags of coal and the profit margin is tiny. And with what might be one of the most important ideas Leon ever has, arguably the most important idea ever has, he decides he’s going to switch from delivering coal to delivering fuel Oil. (Time 0:07:06)
  • Humble Beginnings
    • Leon Hess, at 19, started with a used truck, selling heating oil.
    • He found buyers for residual oil, discarded by refiners. Transcript: David Senra So Leon realizes, dad, we’re in the wrong business and proceeds to switch the product too. So Leon sees an opportunity and he’s like, I’m going to bet on oil, specifically fuel oil, instead of coal as a more economical way to get energy. So in his own words later on, there’s only a few quotes from Leon. He’s a very quiet person. He says he started a quote unquote little oil company. So he starts his little oil company in 1933. Leon is 19 years old. And as Leon describes this, you couldn’t start from more humble beginnings. His entire oil company, his fuel company, his fuel delivery service, he says, I bought a secondhand truck and I started selling heating oil and I built this company up over a number of Years. So 1933, 19 years old, one used truck. That is going to be the beginning of the Hess family dynasty. So he is going to find buyers for residual oil that refiners didn’t want. (Time 0:10:13)
  • Hidden Opportunities
    • Leon Hess, like Sam Zemurray, found opportunity in overlooked resources.
    • Both built businesses by selling products others discarded. Transcript: David Senra What is residual oil that refiners didn’t want? This is going to remind you, or reminded me at least, of Sam Zamuri in the book, The Fish That Ate the Whirl. You could think of the same business, the same way that Sam Zamuri built his business is the same way that Leon Hess built his business in the sense that they discovered opportunity hiding In plain sight. Literally the product that both Sam Zamuri and Leon Hess are going to sell was just being thrown away. This is one of the most important parts of the book and of Leon’s life. So Leon realizes that he could sell what was called number six fuel oil. It’s called residual oil. It’s called black oil. Essentially, it’s this heavy, almost like molasses, uh, thick oil that other refiners are just throwing away. (Time 0:11:14)
  • Early Success, Family Ties
    • By 24, Leon Hess had 10 trucks and an oil storage terminal, while still living with his parents.
    • His father even worked for him. Transcript: David Senra So five years later, okay, now we’re at 1938. Leon now has a fleet of about 10 trucks that are buying, you know, this previously disposed fuel oil from other refiners, doing this light boiling, this light refining, and then transferring It and delivering it to other customers throughout the East Coast. He eventually is buying so much of this fuel oil that he has to buy a piece of land and he purchases some secondhand oil storage tanks. And he starts an oil storage terminal on this river in New Jersey. Now, keep in mind, this is one of the fascinating things about this part of the book. Leon’s 24 years old at this point, and he’s still living with his parents. And his dad is now working for Leon, helping him. (Time 0:14:08)
  • Wartime Logistics
    • Leon Hess’s experience as General Patton’s fuel supply officer during WWII honed his logistical skills.
    • The Red Ball Express demonstrated efficient fuel transport. Transcript: David Senra In fact, Leon provides a job for his dad all the way until his dad was in his 90s. Cut his teeth on residual oil from refiners and built his business in the logistics around transporting oil to refineries as efficiently as possible and distributing the freshly Produced fuel effectively. Now, he is very unusual. Leon is very unusual for most of the oil barons that you might read about because essentially he works backwards to the source. A lot of people, you know, they write a ton of books about the people that are actually discovering oil, right? He actually, Leon comes into the industry incrementally. So he starts with the sale of the end product before working his way backwards into fuel storage, refinery, and then finally oil exploration and actually discovery. So as a young Leon Hess is trying to build his oil business, World War II breaks out. This winds up becoming excessively important because he’s going to go to Europe. Leon actually serves as the fuel supply officer for General Patton. This experience helps Leon develop a talent for logistics and moving fuel efficiently. They create this thing called the Red Ball Express. (Time 0:14:49)
  • Post-War Boom
    • Multiple factors converged to create a “Lollapalooza effect” for Hess after WWII.
    • Increased fuel oil demand, economic expansion, and logistic expertise fueled his success. Transcript: David Senra So then we get to the part where post-World War II, he comes back to America, and he’s going to have this massive explosion in the size and success of his business. And so anytime, there’s an idea, I assume that you have the book Portrait of Zomac. If not, I’d order it immediately. And I would go to the index of that book, and I would read about Charlie Munger’s surfing model. And so what Munger does is, essentially, can reverse engineer why somebody was successful. And so in that book, there’s a few pages where Munger is analyzing the outside success of Les Schwab. And Munger says anytime you have extreme success, it’s usually this Lollapalooza effect. It’s these multiple factors working together to create these exceptional results. And so he analyzes what were the multiple factors that were contributing to Les Schwab’s success. And he’s like riding the Japanese tire wave. He had this brilliant incentive systems where he would share profits with 50% of the profits with each of the employees who worked in each store. He was a talented fanatic. He was a gifted marketer and advertiser. He had this very systematic approach and how he executed and how he wanted all of his stores operating. And so over a few pages, you know, Munger is just analyzing this for us. And so I thought of this when I came back because there’s I feel the same exact thing is happening in Leon Hess’s life where there is Leon’s post World War Two wave. A series of events that were outside of his control that he surfed, that first of all interacted with each other to produce a slalomalooza effect, but also he surfed magnificently. So first of all, he comes home and he comes back to New Jersey and he’s just like, well, I just got essentially a world-class education in logistics, how to use trucks to move fuel. That just so happens to be the best thing that could have happened to me, considering that is my business. So at this time, again, it goes back to he’s still moving fuel oil. This is that it has a consistency of molasses. Other oil men would call it the bottom of the barrel because it was so heavy. It was the heaviest of all the refined products. Why is that important? At one point, I think they said that, I think the book says that Leon has something like 80% of the market share for fuel oil. Why? Because to move fuel oil successfully, you are required to move quickly and you have to have a mastery of logistics because if it’s not kept at the right, first of all, it’s not delivered Fast enough. And if it’s not kept warm enough, it will transform from liquid into like it cools and it hardens. So the first part of Leon’s post-World War II wave is the fact that now he is maybe has maybe the most advanced logistics training for any of his competitors and he’s able to transport This faster and more efficiently than anybody else. So number one, he’s just able to get the job done. Number two, fuel oil is now going to have a massive increase in demand. Demand for fuel oil surged to unprecedented levels as it’s used for power generation, electricity plants used it, and in shipping expanded. Hess called fuel oil the workhorse fuel of industrial America for its uses in utility boilers, factory machinery, and heating large buildings. Number three, you have this massive explosion in demand of driving. The industry grew to serve a burgeoning U.S. Middle class that wanted and needed to drive more, And Hess metamorphosized from a small dealer into one of the largest gasoline retailers on the East Coast. This is part of Hess’s constant march to go to the source. Remember, he starts a fuel delivery, then storage, then refineries, then retail gas stations, and then finally oil drilling and exploration. Number four, this is a massive increase. This is wild to me. The expansion of the industry that Hess is operating in, in 45 years. So let’s start the dawn of the 20th century, when Rockefeller was at his peak, production was 174,000 barrels a day. Even at that size, that can make Rockefeller probably the richest person on the planet. You fast forward 45 years, where we are in the story, where a young Leon Hess is building his oil company, the production is now 4.6 million barrels a day. And then number five, Leon starts building relationships and contacts, which are going to lead to greater sources of capital. So if you really think about what Leon’s post-World War II wave, number one, he’s got the logistics expertise, right person, right set of skills, right time. Number two, the demand for fuel oil is exploding. Number three, the U.S. Economy expands drastically, increasing the purchasing power of the middle class. And as a result, demand for gasoline skyrockets. Number four, America’s insatiable appetite for all types of oil. And then number five, he finally unlocks relationships in capital, including going public, which I’ll talk about in a minute. But I need to talk about one of maybe the most important relationships that he ever builds is this relationship with this guy named David Willans. (Time 0:17:59)
  • Key Relationship
    • David Willens, New Jersey’s attorney general, became Hess’s mentor, father-in-law, and facilitated crucial banking relationships.
    • Hess prioritized loyalty, giving all his business to Chase Manhattan Bank. Transcript: David Senra David is almost like, essentially, it’s going to wind up being his father-in But I would think of him as almost like the father that Leon chose. So David is actually the attorney general of New Jersey. And the book says that Leon’s connection to David was critical in helping shape his success. David would become his friend, his advisor, ultimately his father-in and help support Leon’s transformation from coal hauler to oil baron. Leon met David before the war. In fact, while he was fighting in the war, David oversaw Leon’s business. So he comes back from the war. His business has growing demand, but he’s in dire need of money. And so actually David helps Leon build a relationship with Chase Manhattan Bank. That bank at the time is being run by David Rockefeller, which is an interesting connection here. And one of the most important traits for Leon was loyalty. He expected loyalty and he gave it in return. And so because he says he gave all of his business to Chase because of the effort they put into building the relationship with him, he says they were the only ones who ever paid any attention To me. The rest of the banks never took me seriously. David saw a lot of potential in Leon. In fact, David is the one that introduced his daughter Norma to Leon. They’re going to be married for the rest of their lives. At the time where he does this, Leon doesn’t have a lot of money. All the money is going back into the business. So he actually has to borrow money to buy a suit for their first date. The contrast between their classes was obvious. This is the daughter of the Turner General, who had grown up with a great deal of privilege, was in a different class from the owner of a fledgling fuel business. And yet David and Leon continued to share a deep connection until David died in 1988. And after David died, someone else described David’s view and relationship with Leon. It says, David didn’t mind rich people. He liked them. But the ones he really liked started out poor, like his son-in Leon, whom he loved. And it is also from David where Leon learned, you have to balance work and family. So it says, Hess was fully established as Leon’s first child before he met Norma, and he spent long evenings and weekends dedicated to the company’s birth and early upbringing. But just as David had balanced a demanding career with dinner at home each evening, Leon did the same, sometimes having to return to the office for long hours at night after spending Time with his wife and children. (Time 0:22:50)
  • Strategic Refinery
    • Hess built the largest Western Hemisphere refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands for tax benefits.
    • This strategic location provided unfair advantages and circumvented U.S. shipping rules. Transcript: David Senra So then Leon continues his march to getting closer and closer to the actual source. At this point, he’s buying and selling and storing fuels. And Leon wasn’t going to be content with just buying oil from refineries. He’s going to start his own refineries. So he actually builds his first refinery in New Jersey in 1957. So now as a result, the company would no longer just be a middleman between refiners and their customers. It can now make its own product at its own facility. And then he starts adding other refineries, builds one in Texas. But eventually the reason I want to read this part to you, this entire section, which this actually blew my mind, because again, speaks to the size and the scope of his ambition. You know, he starts out as this 19 year old kid, used truck. I’m just going to try to make my own way in this world. Now, fast forward three decades later, he winds up building the largest refinery in the Western Hemisphere, and he does so in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Why? Why U.S. Virgin Islands? Because U.S. Virgin Islands hold a key advantage. So the location that he chooses for this refinery allowed Leon to take advantage of federal tax benefits. This may be the only place in the world that he could have done this. So the refinery is able to secure foreign refiner status, which allows it to circumvent federal rules that require the use of higher cost U.S. Flagged vessels when shipping oil to the East Coast, while simultaneously at the same time, also receiving subsidies from the United States Department of Energy as a domestic refinery. There is a line I read in the autobiography of Trader Joe, the guy that started the grocery store, that I think about over and over again. And he says, as I learned time and time again, success in business often rests on a minute reading of the regulations that impact your business. That’s exactly what Leon Hess did here. He picked the one place on the planet. We had this combination of unfair, and I don’t mean it’s legal because it’s completely legal, of unfair advantages. (Time 0:25:03)
  • Gas Station Strategy
    • Hess expanded into gas stations, simplifying services compared to competitors.
    • He initially refused credit cards to speed refueling. Transcript: David Senra At the same time he’s building his refineries, he’s also starting to expand into gas stations. He opens his first gas station in 1960 in New Jersey by the end of the decade. He had gas stations in 16 states. There was an interesting line here that I didn’t realize he purposely did the opposite and simplified what his gas station did compared to the existing competitors. Unlike his competitors, the Hess station attendants didn’t change your oil. They didn’t carry batteries, tires, or windshield wipers, or have car mechanics on site. And for a long time, they wouldn’t even take credit cards because Leon felt that slowed the refueling process down. And so two separate times, Hess merges with another company. This is very important. So the first time, it reads to me that he merges with this company just to take Hess public. So in 1962, Hess merges with this company called Clear Track Corporation. They used to be a Cleveland based farm equipment maker. Okay. But they just sold off most of its equipment business the year before. So I’m not at all. It’s not obvious like what the company is actually doing, but this is what the book says. What Leon was getting with the purchase was a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Hess would finally become a publicly traded company and becoming a publicly traded company, open new sources of financing to Leon. (Time 0:29:44)
  • Family Business
    • Leon Hess prioritized family, involving his children in the business from a young age.
    • His son, John, was groomed to take over, working in various company roles. Transcript: David Senra But I did think it was very fascinating that even though the company was publicly traded, like he really ran it like a family business. And one of the things I most admired about Leon was how close he was to not only his son, but his entire family. He ran essentially, this was like a family venture for 80 years. It just happened to be, I think it was like the 14th most valuable oil company in the world. And I think this really speaks to this where his son, John, who takes over as a CEO role after Leon does, at John’s wedding, Leon was the best man. And so the book talks about the family business at length. It says, the Hesses were a close-knit family. They spent time together, not out of obligation, but out of general affinity. And they were fiercely loyal to one another. For Leon, his life’s ventures were centered on the family. So there’s a bunch of interviews and quotes from his daughters. It says he was an extraordinary father and role model. This is his daughter, Marlene Hess. His standards for himself and our family were high. He couldn’t tolerate deadbeats or liars. He was a man of his word, so we had to be too. He expected the best of himself and also all of us. He worked hard, and so did we. He cared deeply for his fellow man and instilled that in us too. His other daughter, Constance, made a list of other lessons that she remembered from her father. This is after her father passed away. Treasure a good name. Treasure a good name is something he’d repeat over and over again. Hold your cards close to your chest. Love is unconditional. And this is really funny. If you have to talk to the press, make sure that you’re not the story. And so as a young girl in the 1950s, his daughter Marlene said she would remember wearing her pajamas and her slippers and returning to Leon’s office with him after dinner. So at this time, the company’s headquarters were still a set of trailers. This part actually reminded me of Walt Disney. I read this 700-page biography of Walt Disney multiple times, and there’s a great excerpt from that biography about Walt Disney and the way he was with his daughters that reminded me Of the way Leon Hess was with his daughters. It says, Walt Disney would chase the girls around the house, cackling like the witch from Snow White. Or he would troll them endlessly by their heels for hours and hours, Diane would say. That’s one of Walt’s daughters. Or he would stand in the swimming pool and let them climb onto his shoulders. I thought that my father was the strongest man in the world and the most fun, Diane recalled. At night, he would read to them. And on the weekends, he would take them either to Griffin Park or to ride the merry-go or to the studio where they would follow him as he snooped about and pedaled their bikes around the Empty grounds while he worked. This is what Walt said. They used to love to go with me in those days. And that was some of the happiest days of my life. They were in love with their dad. If you did not listen to that episode, that is episode 346. It’s called How Walt Disney Built Himself. It’s one of the most incredible books you can read about one of the most incredible entrepreneurs to ever live. Outside of the office, Leon was there for his children while still running an increasingly major company. During the summer, his son would participate in swim meets. He would arrive just in time to see John swim and then get back into his car where a driver was waiting to whisk him away back to the office. Something that the Hess family had in common with a lot of the people you and I have been discussing the past few weeks. If you look at the Wallenbergs or Hedy Green, they train them in business, both the Green family, the Wallenberg family, and now the Hesses, at a very, very young age. It’s really smart. Something S.T. Lauders family did, something the Walton family did. This idea just reappears over again. It says the Hess’s social life largely spun around Leon’s growing business network as they entertained bankers and colleagues at home, indoctrinating their children, especially John, in the corporation’s culture and preparing John to run the rapidly expanding business. From the age of seven, John was being groomed to take over Hess. John spent time in the trenches, which is just like the Wallenbergs and the Greens again. John spent time in the trenches, learning the business by pumping gas at a station in New Jersey, doing accounting for a refinery, or taking part in operations in St. Croix in the oil fields in Oklahoma. In college, John studied Arabic and Farsi, preparing for a career leading a multinational oil company. After getting his undergraduate degree at Harvard, John attended business school, striking up connections that would help him guide the company. (Time 0:36:27)
  • Hess’s Management Style
    • Leon Hess valued details, cleanliness, and a strong work ethic, setting high standards for himself and others.
    • He fostered loyalty by personally knowing every employee. Transcript: David Senra Leon would tell his son and his daughters treasure a good name. He wanted the Hess name to be recognized and respected. And so throughout the book, his kids are talking about the way he ran his company, the people working inside of the Hess company for multiple decades talked about this. So I made a list of really just things that reappear over and over again. Leon was extremely focused on details and appearances. Details, details, details over and over again. He was obsessed with the details of delivery. At budget meetings, he would quiz the head of the company’s trucking division on the amount of life left in the tires. There’s several quotes throughout the book on the importance of cleanliness. He was obsessed with things being clean. He says, the first thing I look at in an oil tanker is the engine room bilge. Clean bilges denote good housekeeping. He said that in 1987. Remember, he starts his company in 1933. He dies in 1999. He was obsessed with cleanliness in 1933. He was still obsessed with cleanliness in 1987. Right from the start, he made sure his trucks were kept clean and employees learned that working at a Hess facility meant painting and repainting to make everything look like new, whether It was a huge storage tank or the white curb at the Hess gas stations. Again, the importance of cleanliness and order is repeated. Leon realized early on that having the cleanest, safest-seeming gas stations was not only aesthetically pleasing, it could also provide a business advantage. As the family car and car trips were becoming more prevalent, Hess would be the easy choice for those looking for quick service in clean bathrooms, giving him a potential leg up on rivals Who did not put as much emphasis on appearances. As a manager, Leon had been described as tough but fair. He had an exacting eye for detail, but he imposed the same standards on himself as he did on others. Work hard, know everything you could about your business, and if you made a mistake, learn from it and move on. He is often described as fatherly, and one at either the Hess company or the New York Jets, he owns the New York Jets for like three decades, which I’ll get to in a minute, wanted to disappoint Him. This is something his players talked about, people in the coaching staff, people with the executives, and even people working in refineries for Hess talked about they did not. They admired him so much. They worked hard and they didn’t want to disappoint him. He wasn’t prone to emotional outbursts. He came from a school in which a handshake was sufficient for a deal. Leon was a gambler at heart. He wasn’t afraid of risk. Leon ran his company with the ambition of a major oil company combined with the mindset of a startup. And one thing that he would do, he felt the fact that he was always on the road. He was a tireless traveler, that he was able to seek out opportunity where other larger oil companies were kind of a little lazier and they wanted opportunities to come to them. Leon traveled a lot for his job and he encouraged those who work for him to travel as well to find new opportunities. As an entrepreneur, Leon had the opposite mindset as some of the major oil companies that let opportunities find them. He was always hungry for new prospects. He was never averse to taking risks. He loved negotiating. He was unpredictable, and he used that unpredictability to his advantage. He would take a lot of trouble to get to know his counterparties and their families. He built very strong relationships. (Time 0:40:32)
  • Unexpected Collectibles
    • Hess toy trucks, initially a marketing tool, became collector’s items.
    • Leon personally designed each toy, demonstrating his attention to detail. Transcript: David Senra I remember this when I was a kid. It was Leon’s idea. You remember the Hess toy trucks? I actually had these toy trucks when I was a kid. And the idea to make them actually emerge from a conversation that Leon had with a friend who was also a toy manufacturer at a football game in the 1960s. So the idea initially was to create models of all the working Hess vehicles. And what I found most fascinating is Leon was personally involved. Again, speaks to his attention to detail. Leon was personally involved in designing each toy. So these toy trucks start out as a idea. The original idea was like, well, these are great marketing tools and they wind up becoming collector’s items. People to this day, they still collect them and some of the prices are incredible. I would have to imagine that took Leon by surprise. I’m sure he didn’t think, hey, I’m going to make a marketing tool. I’m an oil company manufacturing toys and it’s going to wind up becoming a collector’s item and something that people cherish and reminds them of the holiday season decades later. (Time 0:45:39)
  • The Jets
    • Leon Hess bought a stake in the New York Titans (later Jets) in 1963, eventually becoming sole owner.
    • He insisted the team be sold after his death to avoid distracting his family from the oil business. Transcript: David Senra Another thing that I know for a fact had it taken by surprise is how successful his investment in the New York Jets was. So Leon actually acquires a 20% stake in the New York Jets. They weren’t even called the New York Jets yet. In 1963, for which he paid $250,000. And he said, I was one of five partners. The name of the team at the time was the New York Titans. They were in bankruptcy, and we changed the name to New York Jets. Before the purchase, the Titans were the worst managed, most unprofessional, professional team of the modern era. There were bounce checks, player strikes, coach shuffling, questionable player choices. It was hardly a sure investment. So as the years pass, Leon slowly, over many years, buys out the four other owners and eventually becomes the sole owner. This again speaks to how important family was to Leon Hess. It says, for a man who didn’t have hobbies, Sunday football was something he could share with his family. There’s a hilarious story that really, I think, speaks to Leon’s personality as well. The famous coach, Bill Parcells, tells the story of calling Leon one day to inform him of yet another expensive player contract. I don’t give a shit, Leon told him. If you run out of money, come over here to the oil company and we’ll get you some more money this afternoon. So Leon actually owns the team until he dies in 1999. Now, this might surprise you. He insisted that the Jets be sold after he died. The speculation is that he insisted on this because he did not want his family to be distracted from running the oil company. It says Leon insisted that no member of the Hess family would be part of the purchasing syndicate in any way. Any family member that did try to own a part of the team after his death would lose a third of their inheritance. Woody Johnson of the Johnson& Johnson family fortune bought the team for $635 million in 1999. The Jets sold for almost as much as Leon’s personal stake in Hess was worth at the time, or about 10 times less than what the Jets would reportedly sell for today. (Time 0:46:36)