Kenneth Lay

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.

Lay worked from 1971 to 1972 as a technical assistant to commissioner and vice chairman (federal energy regulator) of the Federal Power Commission and served as the energy deputy undersecretary for the United States Department of Interior until 1974. In 1974, he returned to the business world as an executive at Florida Gas Transmission and was president of Continental Resources from 1981 to 1982. In 1982, he joined Transco Energy Company, owner of the Transcontinental Pipeline, in Houston and held the positions of president, chief operating officer and director until 1984 when he became chairman and CEO of the Houston Natural Gas Company.

By the time energy was deregulated in the 1980s, Lay was already an energy company executive and he took advantage of the new climate when Omaha-based InterNorth bought his company Houston Natural Gas and changed the name to Enron in 1985.

He was also a member of the board of directors from 1993 to 2001 of Eli Lilly and Company and a director at Texas Commerce Bank. In 1996 he held negotiations to replace Robert E. Allen as the CEO of AT&T.

At the time of his death, Lay had been married to his second wife, Linda, since 1982. Both Linda and his first wife, Judith, supported Lay through the trial and made appearances at court. Kenneth Lay had two children, three stepchildren, and twelve grandchildren.

Political involvement

Lay was a friend of the Bush family, including former president George H. W. Bush. He made monetary contributions, led several committees in the Republican Party and was co-chairman of Bush's 1992 re-election committee. As President, Lay flew Bush and his wife to Washington on an Enron corporate plane. In December 2000, Lay was mentioned as a possible candidate for either United States Secretary of Energy or Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush. He was not nominated because it was decided that the administration already included too many energy businessmen from Texas.

Lay additionally had friendly relations with the Republican politicians Gerald R. Ford, Dick Cheney, and James A. Baker III as well as the Democratic politicians Bill Clinton and Ann Richards. He encouraged John Ashcroft to campaign in the 2000 Republican Party presidential primaries, although this was partially to ensure him as a spoiler candidate to help Bush win the race.

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

Enron bankruptcy and trial

Lay's company, Enron, went bankrupt in 2001. At the time, this was the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. In total, 20,000 employees lost their jobs and in many cases their life savings. Investors also lost billions of dollars. On July 7, 2004, Lay was indicted by a grand jury in Houston, Texas, for his role in the company's failure. Lay was charged, in a 65-page indictment, with 11 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and making false and misleading statements. The trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling commenced on January 30, 2006, in Houston.

Lay insisted that Enron's collapse was due to a conspiracy waged by short sellers, rogue executives, and the news media. On May 25, 2006, Lay was found guilty on six counts of conspiracy and fraud by the jury. In a separate bench trial, Judge Lake ruled that Lay was guilty of four additional counts of fraud and making false statements. Sentencing was scheduled for September 11, 2006, and rescheduled for October 23, 2006.