Enron Corp. - University of California | Office of The President

Skilling's resignation and disguise the true reason he was leaving Enron. So Enron created a false
story that Skilling was resigning for personal reasons.
343. On 8/14/01, Enron announced that its new CEO Skilling was resigning "for personal
reasons" and would be succeeded by Lay. On 8/14/01, Lay sent an e-mail to thousands of Enron
employees, which immediately became public:
Our performance has never been stronger; our business model has never been
more robust; our growth has never been more certain ....
In a conference call with analysts, investors and large Enron shareholders, Lay, Kean, Causey,
Fastow and Skilling stated:
• Having served as CEO of the Company from 85 until earlier this year, Lay could
honestly say he had never felt better about the Company, its business model, its
prospects and probably most importantly its incredibly deep pool of talent.
• Skilling stated: "First of all ... this is purely a personal decision and I can't stress
enough that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Enron. I am doing it solely for
personal and family reasons. [M]y reasons for leaving the business are personal
and I'd just as soon keep those private."
• Skilling stated: "The numbers, the earnings show that the company is just in
excellent shape right now. There is nothing to disclose, the company is in great
shape and I just want to reinforce it.... The company is in great shape....
[E]verybody that has looked at the numbers knows, this is an entirely personal
decision ...."
• Skilling stated: "I think right now the numbers are looking good. In fact, I think
last quarter, second quarter, in every one of those products, whether it was crude and
crude products, metals, pulp and paper, coal and there is one other one, weather.
Volumes had more, had more than doubled in every single one of those second
quarter of 2001 over second quarter of 2000 and they are all profit which is another,
I mean that is a real good thing. So, I am feeling real good about that.... I think
people ought to be focusing on is the whole European expansion. Very, very strong
growth in Europe and that continues. And that is a big, big market, so across the
whole wholesale business, I think it's pretty much steady as she goes. We have got
a lot going on and it looks like it is succeeding very, very well."
• Lay stated: "There were no changes in Enron's earnings outlook.... [T]he
company is on solid footing and was looking forward to continued strong growth.
[Enron] had a very, very strong first half, second quarter ... second quarter net income
- 283 -