Charles C. Stephenson graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1959 with a petroleum engineering degree, and set out to build E&P companies. His latest is Tulsa-based Premier Natural Resources LLC, founded in 2006. Its 20 employees pursue a traditional acquire-and-exploit business model that proved successful in his prior companies.

Premier formed a partnership in February 2010 with private-equity giant KKR to acquire even larger properties. The goal of KKR Natural Resources (KNR) is to acquire as much as $1 billion of long-life assets per year, he says.

In May 2011 the partnership closed its third deal, a $104-million Barnett package from Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. This included 122.4 billion cubic feet equivalent of net proved reserves and 75 gross (58.5 net) wells.

Stephenson began his career with Amerada Petroleum Co. (now Hess) in 1960, working three and a half years in the little town of Tioga, North Dakota. Back then the Bakken was just a nuisance.

He worked for the company until 1970, when he joined Andover Oil Co. as vice president of operations. He became president in 1974. It was acquired by Kuwaiti-owned Santa Fe Minerals of Dallas in 1982.

The following year, he co-founded Vintage Petroleum Inc. with Joe Bob Hille. Under their leadership, Vintage grew to 750 employees and operations in the U.S., Argentina, Yemen and four other countries. It went public in 1990. In January 2006, Occidental Petroleum Inc. bought Vintage for $4.3 billion in cash and stock, getting 437 million barrels of oil equivalent in proved reserves.

Stephenson serves on the boards of several smaller concerns, including AAON (since 1996); Regent Private Capital LLC, which he co-founded; and Houston-based venture capital firm Growth Capital Partners, which he also co-founded.

He and his wife have shared their success, donating about $36 million to OU. They established the Charles and Peggy Stephenson Chair in Petroleum Engineering in 1994. He also is on the boards of visitors of OU's College of Engineering and the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy. And he is a founder of Sarkey's Energy Center, a tower housing many of OU's energy and geophysical research units.

The couple funded construction of two other OU research facilities, the Stephenson Research and Technology Center and the Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center. In November 2010, they gave $12 million to OU's Health Sciences Center, where a seven-story cancer treatment facility opens this summer, named the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center.

Investor: If timing is everything, how has timing affected your career?

Stephenson: After living in Tioga, Amerada transferred me to Victoria, in South Texas. It was in January and I left that very day, just when a big storm was coming in. That day I went through a 100-degree change in the temperature. But I learned a lot up there. It was the nucleus of what I needed to know later on.

Another example occurred many years later, when we took Vintage public in August 1990, on the very day that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. That helped just a little bit.

Investor: What is the game plan for Premier?

Stephenson: Chris Jacobsen, vice president of operations at Vintage, didn't want to move to California with Oxy, so I said I'd guarantee a bank line up to $25 million and we'd continue to do the things we did at Vintage—acquire and exploit long-life properties. We were small enough to react quickly to opportunities. He is Premier's president and CEO. We had no backing from private equity at the time. Premier is not buying today, just exploiting our properties.

Investor: How did the KKR partnership come about?

Stephenson: We ran into them while we were both looking at a deal in Dallas. During the evaluation process we got acquainted, and then had some conversations over the next year on how to structure a deal with them, to allow us to look at much bigger deals. The partnership is separate from Premier and we've kept the properties separate.

Investor: Do you buy in competitive auctions or one-on-one negotiations?

Stephenson: We much prefer the latter. We've done two one-on-ones and one competitive bid. It's hard to find the one-on-ones. You've got to be so proactive and really step up to the plate to be competitive before the word gets out.

Investor: Are you currently evaluating more deals?

Stephenson: Absolutely. We have a lot on our plate so we need to be smart in which deals we evaluate. We think there's value in buying long-life, low-priced gas properties.

Investor: What influences your bidding?

Stephenson: A lot of things, but I always go back to the upside. We'd rather look for that and dig that out ourselves. This changes the discount rate we'll pay.

Investor: What do you tell your summer interns?

Stephenson: You have to find a vocation you can be passionate about. There's a lot going on that can excite and motivate students.