Oklahoma entrepreneur, native Tulsan, and founder and chairman of QuikTrip Corporation, Chester Cadieux entered the convenience store business in Tulsa in 1958 with co-founder Burt B. Holmes and $16,000 in initial capital. He built QuikTrip into a $3 billion chain with 440 stores and 7,000 employees in nine states. Cadieux graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1954 and served four years in the U.S. Air Force. He has been chairman of the River Parks Authority Trustees in Tulsa, the National Association of Convenience Stores, and the Tulsa Area United Way. He became the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Phillips Theological Seminary in 2001 and, in 2002, QuikTrip Corporation donated two office buildings and 7.5 acres of land valued at more than $2 million to the Seminary for a new campus. Cadieux was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young and was inducted into the Oklahoma Commerce and Industry Hall of Fame at Oklahoma City University in 2001.