KEN LAY
I knew Ken Lay. Casually, not well, but for many years. I knew him, and I eventually owed him a couple of debts of gratitude that I never thanked him for.
I knew him nearly 30 years ago when he was a young gas pipeline company Vice President on the fast track. A rare Ph.D. economist in the management ranks. Someone we all turned to for guidance as the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 was debated into law. Someone who sparkled with brilliance. Someone very likable.
I knew him as he created Enron and turned it into the leading company among world natural gas companies—the “first natural gas major”. I knew him as he also turned Enron into the darling of many environmentalists and environmental organizations—a “green” industrial giant—a leader in wind energy technology and environmental policy-making. A progressive company. A company on the cutting edge.
In the 1980s he saved my job. As a trade association executive I had recommended support for imposition of a “carbon tax” as a means of addressing the issue of climate change, an unpopular proposal among many in the natural gas industry at that time. A personally threatening backlash among industry executives was growing until Dr. Lay said simply, “But Nelson is right.”
In the 1990s, when Enron was leaps and bounds ahead of other U.S. gas companies in expanding into international opportunities, Dr. Lay supported our efforts to encourage and train other U.S. companies—Enron’s competitors—to also do business abroad. He thought that the USA and the world would be better off if more U.S. companies had broader horizons and were involved in a positive way abroad, and he thought that Enron could compete with them just fine, thank you.
I really don’t know what went wrong at Enron, or how the son of a Baptist preacher got himself into such a mess that cost so many so much. I do know that Dr. Lay was an economist’s economist, and that our country, as well as Enron, turned a lot of policy-making over to theoretical economists in the 1980s and 1990s. Economic efficiency, competition and wealth became religious principles in their own right. With a lurch we placed unprecedented mystical faith in the invisible hand of the unregulated marketplace to bring the best possible results, albeit with some “creative destruction” along the way. I have a feeling that much of what ailed Enron and much of what ails the country today may have started right there.
To many today, Enron is regarded as having been a fraud and Ken Lay is regarded as having been a crook or worse. I guess my point—and I think I owe him this-- is just to remember that Enron was once regarded by almost everyone as the best of the best among natural gas companies, a company that could compete on the world stage, think outside the box, and stand for progressive policies in areas like the environment and international trade. Enron was a shining star in its time. Ken Lay was the guy who made it so.
Copyright Nelson Hay 2006
From 1996-2000 Nelson Hay was President & CEO of the International Gas Center, a natural gas trade association headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
I knew him nearly 30 years ago when he was a young gas pipeline company Vice President on the fast track. A rare Ph.D. economist in the management ranks. Someone we all turned to for guidance as the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 was debated into law. Someone who sparkled with brilliance. Someone very likable.
I knew him as he created Enron and turned it into the leading company among world natural gas companies—the “first natural gas major”. I knew him as he also turned Enron into the darling of many environmentalists and environmental organizations—a “green” industrial giant—a leader in wind energy technology and environmental policy-making. A progressive company. A company on the cutting edge.
In the 1980s he saved my job. As a trade association executive I had recommended support for imposition of a “carbon tax” as a means of addressing the issue of climate change, an unpopular proposal among many in the natural gas industry at that time. A personally threatening backlash among industry executives was growing until Dr. Lay said simply, “But Nelson is right.”
In the 1990s, when Enron was leaps and bounds ahead of other U.S. gas companies in expanding into international opportunities, Dr. Lay supported our efforts to encourage and train other U.S. companies—Enron’s competitors—to also do business abroad. He thought that the USA and the world would be better off if more U.S. companies had broader horizons and were involved in a positive way abroad, and he thought that Enron could compete with them just fine, thank you.
I really don’t know what went wrong at Enron, or how the son of a Baptist preacher got himself into such a mess that cost so many so much. I do know that Dr. Lay was an economist’s economist, and that our country, as well as Enron, turned a lot of policy-making over to theoretical economists in the 1980s and 1990s. Economic efficiency, competition and wealth became religious principles in their own right. With a lurch we placed unprecedented mystical faith in the invisible hand of the unregulated marketplace to bring the best possible results, albeit with some “creative destruction” along the way. I have a feeling that much of what ailed Enron and much of what ails the country today may have started right there.
To many today, Enron is regarded as having been a fraud and Ken Lay is regarded as having been a crook or worse. I guess my point—and I think I owe him this-- is just to remember that Enron was once regarded by almost everyone as the best of the best among natural gas companies, a company that could compete on the world stage, think outside the box, and stand for progressive policies in areas like the environment and international trade. Enron was a shining star in its time. Ken Lay was the guy who made it so.
Copyright Nelson Hay 2006
From 1996-2000 Nelson Hay was President & CEO of the International Gas Center, a natural gas trade association headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
posted by Nelson Hay | 11:00 AM
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