Woods Family Investments, headquartered in Houston, is the investment manager of the Woods Family Office. Woods Family Investments' roots go back to 1928 when Algur H. Meadows, Henry W. Peters and Ralph G. Trippett founded the General Finance Company, which later became the General American Finance System.
In the summer of 1936 Meadows, Peters and Trippett united with J. W. Gilliland, a petroleum expert, to form the General American Oil Company. Meadows became the president and major stockholder of the General American Oil Company in 1941 and was elected chairman of the board in 1950. By 1959 the company had acquired 2,990 oil wells in fifteen states and Canada and was drilling for oil in Spain. Richard Rainwater became a partner in the company in 1969, as did Howard Hughes. In 1971, Peters acquired a minority stake in Howard Hughes' Hughes Tool Company, to which was later sold in 1972. Peters and Hughes were primary stakeholders in Trans World Airlines (TWA). In 1983, Meadows, Trippett, and Peters' son, Eric Woods, sold General American Oil Company to Phillips Petroleum.
After Peters passed away in 1981, Woods would go on to manage the family business and consolidated much of the family’s assets to renewable energy infrastructure in Texas.
Today, Woods Family Investments is the asset manager for Woods Family Office's alternative investments, equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities and structured products. It also is the controller of Hogshead Spouter Co., a Hong Kong-based investment manager of a portfolio of renewable and non-operating/royalty interests as well as energy-efficient consumer products.
Woods Family Investments also oversees the newly-formed Woods Family Foundation.