Ken Lay

My friend and former employer Ken Lay died this week in Colorado where he was spending some time preparing his defense for his sentencing hearing in the fall. He was 64. His services in Houston will be held on Wed. July 12th.

He is of course mostly remembered for his role as the Chief Executive of Enron. The company went into bankruptcy in 2001. Ken was convicted in Federal Court along with Jeff Skilling in 2006.

I worked as an employee of Houston Natural Gas for 5 years and as a consultant to Enron for the next 20 years and I knew Ken Lay for almost 30 years.

I first met Ken in Washington D.C. He was the lobbyist for Florida Gas and I was the lobbyist for Houston Natural Gas (HNG). We shared the same law firm, Vinson Elkins. So I saw Ken a lot during the time in 1976-77 when the Congress was trying to solve the natural gas shortage and come up with new legislation to free up gas which at that time could only be sold within a state. The fight was over Intrastate vs. Interstate gas. If gas left the state it was regulated by the Federal Government and if he stayed within the state, the state regulated it. Of course gas was sold for a higher price within a state so more gas stayed home so to speak.

Ken and I would see each other on "the hill" in Washington and have dinner occasionally.

Later when I saw Ken he was the new President of Transco Pipeline in Houston. And before long he had moved over to Houston Natural Gas as its President. By that time I had moved on to lobbying for HNG and other firms and also running political campaigns.

Ken was happy to learn that I was still working for HNG and took note of some of my political clients which included Congressmen, State Senators and Representative and some statewide candidates. In fact one of my clients at that time was a Democrat running for the Texas Railroad Commission against an incumbent Republican member of that body. The incumbent called Lay and demanded that I be instructed to cease running the campaign against him. Ken said no. As told to me he said something like "We do not tell our employees or consultants who they can support or work for". That was the end of that discussion.

Over the next few years I would see Ken at various political and civic functions. We worked together on several issue campaigns in Houston. As I told the Los Angeles Times yesterday "In addition to dabbling in politics, Lay also became deeply involved in a variety of civic and philanthropic causes, becoming the go-to guy when money needed to be raised, a ballot measure needed to be passed or a foundation seat needed to be filled.

"If you were able to say to other companies, 'Enron and Ken Lay are backing this issue,' those were magic words," recalled former Enron lobbyist George Strong, who worked with Lay to help pass two major school bond issues in Houston"

In fact once we called and asked Ken to come to a very quick press conference to get some press on passing the basketball arena and he dropped a scheduled meeting and showed up to lend his support. He spoke off the cuff and was the lead story on the nightly news.

We also attended many fund raisers for various candidates. Ken Lay believed in supporting winners regardless of their party. He was pragmatic in that regard. While a moderate Republican Lay was one of the first CEO to hire a Vice President for Diversity and allow domestic partners to share in fringe benefits at Enron. He set up a special department within Enron to invest in minority and women owned businesses. He headed the United Negro College Fund and supported the Houston Area Women's Center by opening his house to a fund raiser for the group. . He supported various religious groups in their fund raising. He was very much part of the Houston leadership and was the go to guy for civic and charitable endeavors.

And Enron was a major supporter of each of the political parties' national conventions. Over 20 years I attended most of the conventions working for Enron. We put on parties for the delegates and in most cases Ken was the host, greeting folks at the door and welcoming them to the event regardless of their political party.

Ken also kept up with legislation at the state and national level. During the fight to restructure electricity in Texas, Ken was the person who made the call to then Governor Bush and his top staff. He understood the issue and could summarize the points in quick telephone conversations. Back then, Governor Bush called him "Kenny Boy" and now it is strange to hear the White House say that he was just one of the many "acquaintances" of the President. Acquaintance my foot he was a personal friend of the President!

Did I like Ken Lay? Yes, very much. Am I sorry that he was convicted this year? Yes. Am I sorry that he is gone? Yes. When Enron first exploded I wrote Ken a note telling him how sorry I was and telling him if I could do anything for him to let me know. I did not hear back from him. Last month when the media was saying that Ken would spend the rest of his life in prison I thought I would write him another note telling him I was thinking of him and again letting him know that if I was ready to help him during this period of his life. Now he is gone before I could tell him how much I liked him as a person and thanked him for his community and civic leadership. Ken Lay will be missed.