T. Boone Pickens, Jr. (born May 22, 1928), an American businessman, head of Mesa Petroleum and well-known takeover artist during the 1980s.

Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma to a Texas oil and mineral rights leasor. Pickens attended Texas A&M and Oklahoma A&M, and after a period as a wildcatter, started working for Phillips Petroleum. Shortly therafter he struck out on his own founding the company that became Mesa in 1956.

By 1981, Mesa had grown into one of the largest independent oil companies in the world when Pickens decided that acquiring other oil and gas companies was more profitable than oil exploration and production. He spent much of the decade targeting undervalued companies, making solicited and unsolicited buyout bids and other merger and acquisition activity. This made Pickens a celebrity during the 'deal-making' 80s. His most publicized deals included an attempted buyout of Cities Services , an attempted takeover of Diamond Shamrock , as well as a proxy fight for Gulf Oil.

These as well as other deals placed Pickens at the center of controversy during the 80s. He was typically characterised as a corporate raider and greenmailer, as many of his deals were not completed though Pickens received substantial profits through the eventual sale of his stock in the company being taken over.