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Gexa Management Team
Imagine my suprise when researching Gexa’s management team - Gexa’s CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is Jeff Harbert. Do you remember Jeff Harbert? Remember? Mr. Harbert was a big gun at the former Enron! His biography on the Gexa web site recaps his professional experience mostly at Enron.
As I researched Gexa the company, I’ve read everything I can about their business practices as a company and who is in the driver’s seat? How did the company get started and where did the managers come from. The best predictor of the future is the past.
Gexa’s has been on a fast track into other state retail power markets as well. They are working hard to position Gexa’s so it is attractive to investors - show fast growth, fast profits, leveraging FLP assets. Of particular interest is how they report finances to investors verses financial reporting to the regulators and government.
I confess to being biased in favor of companies that are investing in real infrastructure and real assets. I have become very skeptical of companies that are primarily primping and fluffing to attract investor dollars with promises of fast returns. A company’s business should be its primary business, not just an investment machine. Investment machines have one goal in mind - make the “founders” rich fast, general investors second and customers third at best. Business practices designed primarily to attract investment typically result in fast up and fast down businesses. A business’s ethical conduct tends to follow the ethics of their managers.
From Gexa Energy’s own web site:
“Prior to joining FPL, Harbert served as the chief risk executive for Waste Management, Inc., where he developed and supervised corporate-wide risk control efforts for start-up trade operation WM Trading, Inc. In addition, Jeff’s career includes an impressive 17-year history in leadership positions with Enron companies, including Enron Net Works, where he developed and implemented all web-based operational processes; Enron North America and Enron Capital and Trade Resources, where he managed all operational activities; and Enron Oil Trading and Transportation, where he handled all budgeting, variance analysis and forecasting activities.
Harbert is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a bachelor of science degree in accounting.”
You may recall Enron execs took a well respected old time Texas gas company (Enron Gas pipeline) and forayed it into many other business. They leveraged the financial assets of the core business counting them many times over to build lots of other business, most unrelated to the gas business.
I think these guys are back in business, this time using Florida Light and Power as their golden goose.
Not too long before Enron was taken down by a preponderance of illegal activities, it was convicted of illegal market manipulations related to California’s power deregulation crisis . Enron manipulations, designed to take full advantage of a partially deregulated California energy system, feed significant profits into Enron’s trading business - not their energy business. Ultimately it forced the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric and the public bail out of Southern California Edison. Your tax dollars bailed out the old time electric company SCE - because we can’t have an electric company fail. Sound like anything else you’ve heard of lately?
Everyone in Houston (and most in the US) knows what happened to Enron. Did you ever wonder where all those top Enron folks landed? Among that group I don’t know who knew what, or who went where, but I can tell you where Jeff Harbert landed.
I found an archived e-mail on the internet that clearly shows Jeff’s position among the top Enron dogs. The memo is informing Enron execs that the “Body Shop” (assumed to be the fitness gym in downtown Houston, Texas?) will soon be re-opening and they get first pick on lockers. Subject: Priority Locker Selection-Men's
Notice that the e-mail is addressed to 10 executives. Jeff Harbert is number 10 on the list right after number 9 - Jeff Skilling. Anyone remember Jeff Skilling?
I have no idea why Duke University Computer Science department is archiving the e-mail, but they are. What I was researching was where Jeff Harbert was on Enron’s chart of organization. I think most at the top knew what was going on and as long as the pay was good, everyone was on board. Things turned bad, and they jumped like rats from a sinking ship. Where did they land? In the case of Jeff Harbert, this email certainly clarified Jeff’s ranking and probable management style for me!
Question: Do you think Jeff knew what was going on at Enron? Was he a part of the deceptive practices. Could it be that he has become a student of Enron cocky enough to try again?
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