Samuel Combs III, is president and chief executive officer of COMSTAR Advisors, LLC, an Oklahoma-based management advisory and private investment firm. COMSTAR’s investment activities in banking, energy, healthcare and manufacturing are primarily focused on growth-oriented Oklahoma companies.
Prior to COMSTAR, Combs was president of ONEOK Distribution Companies, the natural gas distribution segment of Fortune 500 diversified energy company ONEOK, Inc. As a member of ONEOK’s senior executive team, he led the company’s $3 billion natural gas distribution segment and is credited with creating the strategic architecture that resulted in ONEOK Distribution Companies achieving multiple years of record profits and sustained growth in investment returns.
His own investments extend to one of his great loves, basketball. Combs is an owner of the WNBA Dallas Wings (formerly, the Tulsa Shock) sports franchise and has served on the WNBA Board of Governors and its Labor Relations Committee.
Combs other great love, besides his wife Rita, is Tulsa. He is active in community and state affairs and believes deeply in sharing the full history of our city so we may learn and grow together. Combs helped found Greenwood Rising – a world-class history center that tells the story of Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District in a holistic, experiential way. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board.
Combs Chairs the Tulsa Community College Board of Regents and serves as a board member of the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation. He co-chaired the “Step-Up Tulsa” community revitalization initiative, is a past-president of Leadership Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa’s “Friends of Finance,” and has given his time to the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association national board and the Tulsa Historical Society board.
Sam Combs received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from OSU, graduated from the Ross School of Business Executive Program at the University of Michigan and has completed studies at Harvard and Columbia. Combs has twice been recognized among the most influential African Americans in Corporate America by Black Enterprise magazine.
