When many people hear the word Enron, they immediately associate it with the biggest accounting scandal of our lifetime. Enron was an American gas company that began as Northern Natural Gas Company in 1931. Internorth, a holding company based in Omaha, Nebraska, purchased Northern Natural Gas Company and reorganized it in 1979. Enron was born from the 1985 merger of Houston Natural Gas and Inner North. After building a large new corporate headquarters in Omaha, the new Enron named former Houston Natural Gas CEO Kenneth Lay as CEO of the newly incorporated company in 1986, and soon moved Enron's headquarters to Houston, Texas. As Enon continued to grow, in 1987 he discovered that New York oil traders had overextended the company's accounts by nearly $1 billion. The company ultimately reduces this loss to $142 million. This leads Enron to develop myriad services to help reduce the risk of price swings for everything from gas to advertising space. The following year Enron opened its first overseas offices in England to take advantage of the country's privatization of its energy sector. The company's major strategy shift to pursue unregulated markets in addition to its regulated pipeline business is revealed to executives in a meeting that became known as the "Come to Jesus" meeting. After becoming the new top executive, Lay later became chairman of the board and in 1989 hired Jeffrey Skilling as CEO. This move helped Enron launch its Gas Bank, a program under which natural gas buyers can secure long-term supplies at fixed prices. The company also begins offering financing to oil and gas producers. About three years later Enron acquires Transportador... mid-paper... before the fall is a legitimate thing to do. It is an extremely necessary thing to be the whistleblower. Why take the risk of putting your future and your life on the line for a couple of dollars. If I were an executive, I would have already made enough money to support myself, so staying to get more wouldn't be a smart thing for me to do. Work Cited1) American Wind Energy Association, http://www.awea.org/pubs/documents/globalmarket2001.PDF2) Definition of Mark to market, http://www.investorwords.com/2996/mark_to_market.html3 ) The collapse of Enron; Potter, Jeff - Clark, Kevin - http://www.franklincollege.edu/pwp/jporter/Enron%20Case%20Study.pdf4) Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. http://www.enron.com/5) Enron-the the smartest kids in the room, www.enronmovie.com