Tim Dunn

Timothy Marvin Dunn (born 1955) is an American businessman who is the chief executive officer of CrownQuest Operating, an oil and gas business he co-founded in 1996. He is influential in Texas politics, and is a major financial backer of various politically conservative causes and organizations. As of October 2025, Forbes estimated Dunn's net worth at $1.5 billion.

Early life and education Tim Dunn was born to Joe and Thelma Dunn. Dunn grew up in Big Spring, Texas, the youngest of four boys. He was an Eagle Scout, graduated from Big Spring High School in 1974, and earned a degree in chemical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1978. In high school, he played basketball, was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and played guitar in a band called the Scrub Brotherhood. Dunn then was an executive at Parker & Parsley Petroleum until 1995, where he became chief financial officer. While at Parker & Parsley Petroleum, he oversaw securities transactions and became a supporter of tort reform. Dunn is CrownQuest's chief executive officer. CrownQuest controls significant portions of the Permian Basin and was the eighth-largest oil producer in Texas in 2022. Dunn is a billionaire.

Political involvement Dunn is influential in state and local politics in Texas and has been called the most effective political donor in Texas. He was the largest individual source of campaign funds in Texas in 2022 and 2023.

He was a delegate in 1996 to the state's Republican convention. Dunn is a founding board member of Citizens for Self-Governance, which spearheads the Convention of States project, a national effort seeking to call an Article V convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Dunn is vice chairman of the board of directors at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). Dunn supported juvenile-justice reform legislation in 2011. Nearly all of his donations during 2022 and 2023 went to the PAC, and Dunn was the majority funder of the PAC. After Defend Texas Liberty President Jonathan Stickland was found to have met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Stickland was replaced as president and the organization put out a statement opposing Fuentes' views. While Defend Texas Liberty was still a functioning PAC for the 2024 election cycle, much of Dunn's funding began going to a newly formed PAC: Texans United for a Conservative Majority. The group helped candidates win multiple Texas House primary races in open seats as well as in challenges against incumbents in 2024. Dunn is on the board of directors of the Grace School of Theology, a Christian seminary with a vision to become "A Seminary to the World," and the First Liberty Institute, a Christian legal defense organization. He is the chairman of the Christian Advisory Board of the Israel Allies Foundation, a non-governmental organization formed in 2007 by Israeli rabbi and politician Binyamin Elon to encourage cooperation among faith-based supporters of Israel in parliaments and legislatures worldwide. Dunn, who Forbes called "staunchly anti-abortion", funds adoption services and foster homes for over 300 children in West Texas. In April 2024, Dunn wrote an opinion editorial in which he said "A recent disparagement is a claim that I support and am a leader in something called 'Christian Nationalism,' a made-up label that conflicts with biblical teaching...Apparently, the Left is equating the term 'Christian Nationalism' with authoritarianism. This makes the term not only unbiblical but un-American."

Personal life

Dunn met his wife, Terri Dunn (née Spannaus), while attending Texas Tech University and they married after his junior year of college, In 2018, Dunn wrote a book about the experience of losing her, Yellow Balloons: Finding Power To Live Above Your Circumstances. The Dunns reside in Midland, Texas, where they are members of Midland Bible Church. One of Dunn's sons is the Christian singer-songwriter David Dunn.