Jeffrey Skilling

Jeffrey Keith Skilling (born November 25, 1953) is an American businessman who in 2006 was convicted of federal Felony charges relating the Enron scandal.

Skilling, who was CEO of Enron during the company's collapse, was eventually sentenced to 24 years in prison, of which he served 12 after multiple appeals.

Skilling was indicted on 35 counts of crimes related to the Enron scandal.

Jeffrey Keith Skilling was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 25, 1953, the second of four children of Betty (née Clarke) and Thomas Ethelbert Skilling, Jr. His father was a sales manager for an Illinois valve company.

His older brother, Tom Skilling, later became chief meteorologist at WGN-TV in Chicago.

Skilling grew up between New Jersey and Aurora, Illinois.

When he was 16 years old, he worked at WLXT-TV (channel 60), a UHF television station in Aurora.

He graduated from West Aurora High School and received a full scholarship to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

Skilling initially studied engineering before changing to business.

After graduating in 1975, he went to work as a corporate planner for First City Bancorporation of Houston, Texas.

He quit by 1977 to attend Harvard Business School.

According to Skilling, during his admissions interview for Harvard Business School, he was asked if he was smart, to which he replied, "I'm fucking smart."

This apparently so impressed the interviewer that it secured his place at the school.

He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979, graduating in the top 5% of his class as a Baker Scholar.

After graduation, Skilling became a consultant at McKinsey & Company in the energy and chemical consulting practices.

He eventually became one of the youngest partners in the history of McKinsey.

As a consultant for McKinsey & Company, Skilling worked with Enron during 1987, helping the company create a forward market in natural gas.

Skilling impressed Kenneth Lay in his capacity as a consultant, and was hired by Lay during 1990 as chairman and chief executive officer of Enron Finance Corp. In 1991, he became the chairman of Enron Gas Services Co., which was a result of the merger of Enron Gas Marketing and Enron Finance Corp. Skilling was named CEO and managing director of Enron Capital and Trade Resources, which was the subsidiary responsible for energy trading and marketing.

He was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Enron during 1997, second only to Lay, while remaining the manager of Enron Capital and Trade Resources.

During Skilling's management, Enron adopted "mark-to-market" accounting, in which anticipated future profits from any deal were accounted for by estimating their present value rather than historical cost.

Skilling began advocating a novel idea: by promoting the company's aggressive investment strategy, the company didn't really need any "assets".

This plan helped make Enron the largest wholesaler of gas and electricity, with $27 billion traded in a quarter.

On February 12, 2001, Skilling was named CEO of Enron, replacing Lay.

He was slated to succeed Lay as chairman as well in early 2002, but abruptly resigned six months later on 14 August 2001.

Skilling joked about the California energy crisis at one meeting of Enron employees by asking, "What is the difference between California and the Titanic? At least when the Titanic went down, the lights were on".

Skilling later attributed the remark to frayed relations between Enron and California.

His employees, meanwhile, plotted to keep the price of energy high in California.

On March 28, 2001, PBS's Frontline interviewed Skilling, where he claimed for Enron "We are the good guys. We are on the side of angels".

On April 17, 2001, Skilling made what became an infamous comment during a conference call with financial analysts.

In response to fund manager Richard Grubman saying "You know, you are the only financial institution that can't produce a balance sheet or cash flow statement with their earnings", Skilling replied: "Thank you very much, we appreciate that... asshole."

Skilling unexpectedly resigned on August 14 of that year, citing personal reasons, and he soon sold large amounts of his shares in the corporation.

Then-chairman Kenneth Lay, who previously served as CEO for 15 years, returned as CEO until the company filed for bankruptcy protection during December 2001.

When brought in front of congressional committees, Skilling stated that he had "no knowledge" of the complicated scandal that would eventually result in Enron's bankruptcy.

In 2006 he was found guilty of conspiracy, insider trading, making false statements, and securities fraud.

He was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined $45 million.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments in the appeal of the case in 2010, vacated part of Skilling's conviction, and transferred the case back to the lower court for resentencing.

In 2011, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the verdict would have been the same despite the legal issues being discussed, and Skilling's conviction was confirmed; however, the court ruled Skilling should be resentenced.

Skilling appealed this new decision to the Supreme Court, but the appeal was denied.

In 2013, following a further appeal, and earlier accusations that prosecutors had concealed evidence from Skilling's lawyers prior to his trial, the United States Department of Justice reached a deal with Skilling, which resulted in ten years being cut from his sentence, reducing it to 14 years.

He was moved to a halfway house in 2018 and released from custody in 2019, after serving 12 years.