Job: Former chief executive, president and chief operating officer
Mr Skilling left his post as Enron’s chief executive in August 2001, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and on his charity work.
He departed without a pay-off and was reported to have sold millions of dollars' worth of Enron stock after leaving.
Testifying before Congress, he vehemently denied any knowledge of the complex web of financial arrangements that became Enron's downfall.
Prior to becoming chief executive in February 2001, he was president and chief operating officer of the firm. He was also seen as a key architect of the company’s gas-trading strategy.
At Enron, he gained a reputation for being tough, confident and full of swagger. He was famed for taking clients motorcycling across Mexico and hunting in the Australian outback.
Mr Skilling also championed Enron’s online trading operation, although he was initially slow to lend his support.
When asked whether he was concerned about undercutting the company’s traditional phone trading, he said: “If you can cannibalise your own sales, you’d better do it because otherwise someone’s going to do it to you. This organisation believes in creative destruction.”
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