Kenneth Lee Lay (born April 15, 1942) is an American businessman and former CEO of Enron Corporation. Lay was the CEO and chairman of Enron from 1986 until his resignation in January 23, 2002, except for a few months in 2001 when he was chairman and Jeffrey Skilling was CEO. Enron and Ken Lay have become synonymous with corporate scandal.
Born into poverty in Tyrone, Missouri, Kenneth Lay came from a family so poor that they were not always able to celebrate holidays, eating cold-cuts one Thanksgiving. The son of a Baptist preacher and some-time tractor salesman, Kenneth Lay always kept a sense of optimism and had the credo that “things would work out.” He has been described by his undergraduate classmates at the University of Missouri as industrious and high-minded, and served as president of the esteemed Zeta Phi chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the U. of Missouri and got his doctorate in economics at University of Houston in 1970.
A number of books have been written on Lay and Enron including Conspiracy of Fools (2005), Icarus in the Boardroom, and The Smartest Guys in the Room (2003). The Smartest Guys in the Room was adapted into a documentary film, released in 2005.
Lay sold large amounts of his Enron stock in September and October of 2001 as its price fell, while encouraging employees to buy more stock, telling them the company would rebound.
Lay liquidated more than $300 million in Enron stock from 1989 to 2001, mostly in stock options.
