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Enron Names Stephen Cooper Interim Chief during BankruptcyBy:
Unknown author
New York -- Less than a week after Kenneth Lay resigned as embattled Enron Corp.'s chief executive, the company's board on Tuesday announced the appointment of a reorganization expert to guide it through the largest bankruptcy in history. Stephen Cooper will serve as interim CEO and chief restructuring officer. Mr. Cooper is a managing principal of the Zolfo Cooper, New York, a 20-year-old consulting firm that specializes in bankruptcy reorganization. He will guide Enron through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid multiple investigations into the company's swift collapse last year. His long list of past clients includes Polaroid Corp. and Federated Department Stores Inc. The appointment of Mr. Cooper, which had been expected, should satisfy some of the concerns of Enron's creditors committee, who had pushed for Mr. Lay's resignations. The company also said Tuesday that Jeff McMahon has been elevated from chief financial officer to president and chief operating officer. Treasurer Ray Bowen was named vice president and chief financial officer. Both, as members of the office of the chief executive, will fill out Enron's top management team. Mr. Cooper said the team will immediately start working with Enron's current management and the creditors' committee on the company's efforts to emerge from bankruptcy. "Our focus is on the future of Enron," Mr. Cooper said in a prepared statement. "We will work closely with the board of directors, management and the creditors committee to develop a reorganization plan to maximize value for the company's stockholders." Mr. Whalley has resigned as president and chief operating officer and will accept a position with UBS Warburg, a unit of UBS AG, the Swiss bank that acquired Enron's cornerstone trading operation earlier this month. Mr. Lay resigned last week as chief executive and chairman under pressure from Enron's creditors and fellow directors, acknowledging he couldn't lead the company through bankruptcy while facing numerous investigations into the Enron's collapse. Mr. Lay, 59 years old, remains on the board. A search continues for a new chairman. Enron filed for bankruptcy in New York on Dec. 2, and laid off thousands of workers at its Houston headquarters the next day. The filing came after weeks of revelations that executives had concocted complicated partnerships that let Enron keep $500 million in debt off its books and eliminate millions of dollars in profits through restated earnings. Shares spiraled to less than a dollar from nearly $80 a year ago, obliterating employees' retirement funds loaded with Enron stock. Nearly a dozen congressional committees, the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and others have launched investigations into the collapse. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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