Ken Lay is dead but his ghost lingers.
Back in August last year, I looked at the curious case of the University of Missouri – Columbia dilemma about the Kenneth L. Lay Chair in Economics, created by the 1998 donation of more than $1 million in Enron stock to the University. At the time, the university maintained that it was going to find some professor somewhere to fill that position. That was regardless of the Enron verdict and Lay's Shattered reputation.
Six months later and the university is still trying to find someone, reports The Maneater, the university's student newspaper.
The piece quotes Michael O'Brien, dean of the College of Arts and Science, claiming that you can't just drop the name. Once an endowment has been established, he says, the only people that can change it are the donors. And with Ken Lay pushing up daisies, that might be a problem.
O'Brien reckons there has been no shortage of candidates but it's just that they keep lucrative counter-offers from their home institutions. Yeah right.
He better not hold his breath. Would you like Ken Lay's name on your CV? Nahh, not a good look.
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