This post on a blog called The Cohen Report, dated December 2007, has an interesting breakdown of various Enron charities. One thing that screamed out at me was this:
Inexplicably, as [Skilling] left Enron and the corporation melted, in 2002 he donated more money to his foundation and then made another $166,000 grant to the high school, followed by still another $86,000 grant in 2003.
Actually it is not inexplicable. All the Enron executives were generous, and Skilling was no exception. He cared a great deal about people and attempted to share his wealth with almost anyone who needed it. Also, I think it speaks to his innocence that he did not start hoarding money.
I’ve mentioned the following two examples of Skilling’s largess many times:
Skilling left Enron spurning a $20 million severance payment that he was in theory entitled to, a perk that is hard to imagine anyone else in the rapacious culture of Enron executives rebuffing, and left before a $2 million company loan would have been forgiven.[50] Likewise, Skilling, like Lay, could have spread some philanthropic green around town to burnish his image, but he put it into Junior Achievement, the training ground for potential new young Skillings of the world, and to the high school that educated his son. But Skilling flouted convention, running his foundation with only one trustee—himself—contrary to the typical corporate exec practice of sprinkling a few family members on the board,[51] and cultivating none of the civic persona that Ken Lay wrapped around himself like Cicero’s toga.
I don’t really agree with the tone of the article, but anyone who actually accepts the positive facts about the Enron executives, and reports them, has my respect.
