Kenneth Lay

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Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was the founder, CEO and Chairman of Enron and was heavily involved in the Enron scandal, a major accounting scandal that unraveled in 2000 in the largest bankruptcy ever to that date.

Lay was indicted by a grand jury and was found guilty of 10 counts of securities fraud in the trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

Lay died in July 2006 while vacationing in his house near Aspen, Colorado, three months before his scheduled sentencing.

A preliminary autopsy reported Lay died of a myocardial infarction (heart attack) caused by coronary artery disease; his death resulted in a vacated judgment.Lay left behind "a legacy of shame" characterized by "mismanagement and dishonesty".

In 2009, Portfolio.com ranked Lay as the third-worst American CEO of all time.

His actions were the catalyst for subsequent and fundamental corporate reform in regard to "standards of leadership, governance, and accountability".Lay was one of America's highest-paid CEOs; between 1998 and 2001, he collected more than $220 million in cash and stock in Enron and sold 1.7 million shares.

However, during his trial in 2006, Lay claimed that Enron stock made up about 90% of his wealth, and that his net worth at that time was negative $250,000.

Early life

Lay was born in the Texas County, Missouri, town of Tyrone, the son of Omer and Ruth (née Rees) Lay. Lay's father was a Baptist preacher and Lay grew up in poverty after the family's general store failed. Later in Lay's childhood, his family relocated to Columbia, Missouri, and Lay attended David H. Hickman High School and the University of Missouri, where he studied economics, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1964 and a Master of Arts in 1965. He served as president of the Zeta Phi chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Missouri. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the University of Houston in 1970.

He worked at Humble Oil as an economist from 1965 to 1968 in the Corporate Planning Department. In 1968, Lay entered the Officer Candidate School for the United States Navy where, from 1968 to 1971, he rose to the rank of lieutenant and was the special assistant to the Navy Comptroller and Financial Analyst at the Office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Department of the Navy at The Pentagon.

Personal life

At the time of his death Lay had been married to his second wife since 1982. He had two children, three stepchildren, and twelve grandchildren.

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Career

Lay served as an administrative assistant to commissioner and vice chairman (federal energy regulator) of the Federal Power Commission from 1971 to 1972, and as the energy deputy under secretary for the United States Department of Interior until 1974. He returned to the industry in 1974 as a director with Florida Gas Transmission and as president of Continental Resources from 1981 to 1982. He joined Transco Energy Company, the Transcontinental Pipeline's owner, in Houston, in 1982, and served as president, chief operating officer, and director until 1984, when he became chairman and CEO of the Houston Natural Gas Company.

Lay was already an energy company executive by the 1980s, and he capitalized on the current atmosphere when Omaha-based InterNorth purchased his company Houston Natural Gas and changed the name to Enron in 1985.

He served on the board of directors from 1993 to 2001, as well as a director at Texas Commerce Bank. He held talks to replace Robert E. Allen as AT&T's CEO in 1996.

Lay was a friend of the Bush family, including former President George H. W. Bush. He made monetary contributions, served on many committees in the Republican Party, and served as co-chairman of Bush's 1992 re-election commission. On an Enron corporate plane, President Lay flew Bush and his wife to Washington. Lay was listed as a potential nominee for either United States Secretary of Energy or Treasury Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush in December 2000. He was not nominated because the Bush administration already had too many energy businessmen from Texas to be considered.

Lay, as well as Democratic politicians Bill Clinton and Ann Richards, had friendly links with Republican politicians Gerald R. Ford, Dick Cheney, and James A. Baker III. He encouraged John Ashcroft to run in the 2000 Republican presidential primaries, but this was partly to guarantee he would run as a spoiler candidate to help Bush win the nomination.

Lay's political contributions totaled $5.8 million from 1989 to 2002, with 73% going to Republicans and 27 percent going to Democrats. He contributed $365,410 to the Republican Party from 1999 to 2001.

Enron, a lay's business, went bankrupt in 2001. This was the largest bankruptcy in the United States ever, at the time. 20,000 workers lost their jobs and in some cases, their life savings were lost. Investors have also lost billions of dollars. Lay was convicted by a grand jury in Houston, Texas, on July 7, 2004, for his part in the company's demise. Lay was indicted on Friday, on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making inaccurate and misleading representations in a 65-page indictment. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling's trial began in Houston on January 30, 2006.

Enron's demise was due to a conspiracy waged by short sellers, rogue executives, and the news media, according to Lay. Lay was found guilty of six counts of conspiracy and fraud on May 25, 2006. Judge Lake found Lay guilty of four new charges of fraud and making misleading representations in a separate bench trial. Sentencing was scheduled for September 11, 2006, but it was postponed for October 23, 2006.

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