In the fall of the year 2000, there just happened to be a decision point when they asked me to become Chief Executive Officer of the company. It was a time when, as you remember, we were starting to have some real problems in the California energy markets.
Larry, I spent probably most of my professional life helping to build Enron Corporation. I don't think there was anyone that was as shocked by the - by the collapse of the company as I was.
We built that into a wholesale business that became, really, one of the largest companies in the United States. We had success in building new markets, opening markets for competition, and that takes a personal toll.
Well, actually, I had been working as a consultant to former companies of Enron, or predecessor companies of Enron and, so, I joined in 1990 to really start our wholesale merchant business.
We were building a - what I thought was a fantastic company. We had great people. We were changing - we were changing the way the marketplace operated. We were creating a market for natural gas and electricity that had never existed before.
I thought the stock was a great buy. I think anybody that bought the stock in 1999 was - saw over the next couple of years a strong growth. During the year of 1999, I significantly increased my ownership of shares in the company.
Are the things that now, in retrospect, with what I've seen happen to my company, would I have done some things differently? I think - I think we all would do - we would do a number of things differently.
