How Jimmy built the fortune
Jimmy Haslam's wealth comes from a business his father started. In 1958 James Haslam II opened a single gas station in Gate City, Virginia, and named the company Pilot. Over the following decades it grew into a network of convenience stores and then highway travel centres serving long-haul truckers, with fuel, food, showers and parking. Jimmy joined after college and spent his career expanding it, becoming president and later chief executive.
The decisive step came in 2010, when Pilot merged with Flying J, a Utah-based rival that had gone through bankruptcy. The combination created Pilot Flying J, by far the largest operator of truck stops in North America, with hundreds of locations along the interstate highway system and a large fuel supply and wholesale business. Its scale gave it purchasing power and a dominant position in diesel sales to trucking companies.
In 2017 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy a large minority stake in the company, with the right to acquire control later. Berkshire increased its holding to about 80 percent in 2023 and later took full ownership. The Haslam family's payments from these transactions, together with earlier dividends, form the basis of their wealth. The final stages of the sale were accompanied by a legal dispute between the family and Berkshire over the purchase price, which was later settled.
The family also became major owners in professional sports, turning part of their business proceeds into stakes in teams in Cleveland, Columbus and elsewhere.
The Pilot model depended on location and scale. Travel centres sit on major freight corridors where truckers must stop for fuel and rest, and fleet customers negotiate discounted diesel prices across a whole network. By combining the two largest networks, the merged company could offer national fleets a single supplier, which strengthened its hold on the market and made the business attractive to a long-term buyer such as Berkshire, which prefers durable companies with steady cash flow.
Companies and holdings
Haslam's main holdings and roles include:
- the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, bought with his wife Dee in 2012
- the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, acquired in 2019 by the Haslam family and partners
- a minority stake in the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association
- Haslam Sports Group and family investment entities
He stepped back from day to day leadership of Pilot as Berkshire took control. A new enclosed stadium for the Browns in suburban Brook Park, Ohio, has been planned with public and private funding.
Early life and career
Haslam was born in 1954 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up there. He studied at the University of Tennessee, where his father had played football, and graduated in 1976. He then joined Pilot full time, working in many parts of the business before taking over as chief executive in the mid 1990s.
His brother, Bill Haslam, also worked in the family business before entering politics; he served as mayor of Knoxville and as governor of Tennessee from 2011 to 2019. The family remains closely tied to Knoxville and the University of Tennessee.
Under his leadership Pilot moved beyond its convenience store roots and focused on interstate travel centres, adding restaurant partnerships, larger truck parking areas and services for professional drivers. The strategy positioned the company to take advantage of growth in long-distance trucking during the 1990s and 2000s.
Philanthropy and public life
The Haslam family has been a major donor to the University of Tennessee, where the business college is named after Jimmy's father, and to Knoxville charities. Through the Browns and the Crew, Jimmy and Dee Haslam have funded youth sports, education programs and community projects in Ohio.
His public profile was affected in 2013 when federal agents raided Pilot's headquarters over a scheme in which some sales staff withheld promised fuel rebates from trucking customers. Haslam said he had not known about the fraud. The company accepted responsibility, paid a large penalty and reached civil settlements with customers, and Haslam was not charged. Several employees were convicted.