- Born
- Died
- Birth nameChristopher Cline
- Chris Cline was a self-made billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist and political donor once called the "King of Coal". A well-known philanthropist and Republican donor who began working in the coal industry in West Virginia in 1980 at the age of 22, he rapidly rose through the industry ranks, founding an energy development group, the Cline Group, in 1990. Governor Jim Justice (R-WV) told The Washington Post that when Cline was in his early 20s, he bought the deep-mining company Pioneer Fuel Corporation from Justice's father. In 2006, he founded Foresight Energy to develop and operate mines in Illinois.
The youngest of three sons, he started working in the mines at age 15. Cline attended Brenton Elementary School in Wyoming County, WV, where he lived after moving from Isaban (McDowell County, WV). The 1976 graduate of Baileysville High School attended Marshall University (Huntington, West Virginia) but dropped out.
His first business opportunity came early, when Chris was 22 and his dad, who by then shared ownership of a mine, fell ill. His father's partner was ready to buy the other half of the mine until Chris came home and purchased it with $50,000 he borrowed. The younger Cline reportedly sensed a shift on the horizon. Regulations were moving toward requiring plants to scrub the coal they burned. If they were going to scrub it, they had no need to be picky about how much sulfur was in it. The bet fueled a business that began in Appalachia then took him to Illinois and, later, Canada.
Cline, his daughter, their pilot, and four others were killed in a helicopter crash on July 4, 2019, shortly before his 61st birthday. His net worth was estimated at $1.8 billion.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Robert Sieger
- SpousesKelly(1993 - 2000) (divorced)Sabrina(? - 1987) (her death)
- Majority owner of Foresight Reserves LP (St. Louis, Missouri). Dubbed the "New King Coal" by Bloomberg, Cline was considered to have been responsible for reviving the Illinois coal industry.
- Cline, his daughter, and five others were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Atlantic shortly after leaving Grand Cay, Bahamas for Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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