PROFILE: KINDER MORGAN
Kinder Morgan
Terminals had liquids
throughput of 552
million barrels last year.
Together with Kinder Morgan's
Products Pipelines it is the
largest independent liquid
terminal operator by capacity
in North America. But despite
its size and those US$800
million revenues, the company
has a headcount of just eight
in its corporate offices in
Houston.
“It's a very lean
operation and we try to push
decisions down to the field,” explains John W. Schlosser,
Kinder Morgan Terminals' vice
president of sales and
business development.
That discipline permeates
the entire Kinder Morgan
group, one of the largest
energy transportation,
storage and distribution
companies in North America.
All executives fly coach class
and there are no corporate
jollies at major sporting
events. The company's cofounder,
the former number
two at Enron, Richard D.
Kinder, earns an annual
salary of just US$1 and
receives no bonus stock
options or shares of
restricted stock (his financial
compensation is derived from
an 18% ownership stake in
Kinder Morgan, Inc).
It's an approach that has
kept the group fighting fit: its
enterprise value today
exceeds US$35 billion.
Richard Kinder, who left
Enron in 1996 before its
spectacular implosion,
founded Kinder Morgan in
1997 with university friend
Bill Morgan when they
acquired a former Enron
pipeline business for US$40
million. Unlike asset-light
Enron, the strategy pursued
at Kinder Morgan has been
one of collecting hard assets
and steering clear of
commodity risk.
