in 1989. McClendon and Ward were both 29 at the time. McClendon began as chairman and chief executive officer of Chesapeake, while Ward served as president and chief financial officer. The company began drilling its first two wells in Garvin County, Oklahoma, in May 1989. With Chesapeake, McClendon focused on drilling wells into unconventional reservoirs such as fractured carbonates and shales and was an early adopter of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques, which helped accelerate the company's fast early growth. His focus on these new and unconventional techniques later led to him being called a "visionary leader" in the oil and natural gas industry. He took the firm public in 1993, and in the following three years its stock was the most successful in the country, rising 274% in value from 1994 to 1997, according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2005, Forbes Magazine named McClendon one of the country's top-performing executives for his role at Chesapeake. A few years later, he was the highest paid CEO of all the S&P 500 companies in 2008, receiving a compensation package totaling $112 million. In 2008, McClendon was notified that his shares were no longer valuable enough to back a margin loan with Goldman Sachs and other banks. In response, McClendon was forced to sell a majority of his 31.5 million shares, comprising 94% of his stake in Chesapeake and 6% of the company. The following year, Chesapeake offered McClendon a five-year retention contract, including a $75 million bonus. In 2011, Forbes called McClendon "America's most reckless billionaire" in a cover story on his career. The profile noted his high risk tolerance and cited the sale of his shares in 2008 as a reckless move. The same year, the magazine named McClendon to its 20-20 Club, comprising the eight CEOs of public companies who had delivered annualized returns of more than 20% over a 20-year period. McClendon dismissed those who described him as a risk-loving wildcatter. "If I wanted to always do the most popular thing, then I'd be a follower," he said in 2012. "The funny thing is that I don't consider myself a gambler at all. A gambler is somebody who just closes their eyes and rolls the dice. We don't do that". Chesapeake continued to grow its gas production under McClendon from 5 million to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day from 2009 to 2013. Chesapeake's discovery of