Enron Corp., the fallen US energy trading giant, announced on Wednesday that its chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth L. Lay resigned from his post.
"This was a decision the board and I reached in cooperation with our creditors' committee," Lay said on Wednesday night in a statement released by Enron.
"I want to see Enron survive, and for that to happen we need someone at the helm who can focus 100 percent of his efforts on reorganizing the company and preserving value for our creditors and hard-working employees," he said.
Lay said investigations into Enron's activities took up too much of his time and he could not concentrate fully on Enron's business. Lay will remain on the company's board of directors.
According to Enron, the board, working with the creditor's committee on Enron's bankruptcy, is selecting a restructuring specialist to join Enron to steer the company from bankruptcy while serving as acting chief executive officer.
The Houston-based and the 7th biggest company in the United States filed for bankruptcy on December 2, the biggest bankruptcy in US history. Its collapse left thousands of employees out of work and stripped of their retirement savings after Enron temporarily barred them from selling company stocks.
At least 11 Congress committees, the Justice Department, the Labor Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Enron's bankruptcy.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24 2002)
