Chris Cline: Elin Nordegren’s Billionaire Boyfriend Says He’s Proud To Work In Coal
Chris Cline may have made his fortune in an industry accused of polluting the environment, but the new boyfriend of Tiger Woods’ ex Elin Nordegren says he’s proud of the work he’s done.
Cline, a billionaire energy mogul, has been spotted with 33-year-old Swedish former model Elin Nordegren in recent days. The owner of the coal producing company Foresight Energy, Cline has now burst into the public spotlight thanks to his new girlfriend.
Those looking into Chris Cline are finding out that despite worries about the environmental problems coal create, he’s happy with what he’s doing.
“As far as the social acceptability of coal, I like to think I’m part of supplying the cheapest energy in America,” Cline told Bloomberg in October 2010.
The 53-year-old coal tycoon could be happy because of his reported $1.2 billion in net worth. Cline ranked No. 360 on the list of the 400 richest people in America, not too bad for someone who started out digging dirt under his porch for his father at a penny a bag when he was six.
Cline comes from a coal mining family in West Virginia, with his grandfather mining coal with a pickaxe in Beckley. In 1980 his father got together $500,000 to buy out a mining partner and gave a share of the company to Chris, who was then 21 years old.
Chris Cline has since grown that company into Foresight Energy, which produces 20 million tons of goal every year.
Cline and Norderen have reportedly been dating since the holidays, though she and Woods have shown signs of a possibile reconciliation when they were spotted together at an event for their children.
Elin Nordegren is not the first love for Chris Cline. He’s been married twice before and has four children. His first wife, Sabrina, died of breast cancer in 1987. He remarried in 1993, but split up with second wife Kelly in 2000.
