Aubrey McClendon (July 14, 1959 - March 2, 2016)

[formthirteen]

Aubrey McClendon, a founder and former chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, died in a car crash Wednesday at age 56, a day after he was charged with conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases.

 

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/02/ex-chesapeake-ceo-mcclendon-dies-in-car-wreck-day-after-indictment.html

 

[fareastwarriors]

suicide?

 

McClendon crashed into an embankment while traveling at a "high rate of speed" in Oklahoma City on Wednesday morning, said Capt. Paco Balderrama of the Oklahoma City Police Department. McClendon's vehicle was engulfed in flame, he said.

 

"He pretty much drove straight into the wall," Balderrama said

[tede02]

Wow.  Talk about a downward spiral.  I just read "The Frackers" in January which profiles McClendon among others.  Unreal. 

[premfan]

God bless.

[Parsad]

Holy smokes!  Wow.  Just crazy. 

[shhughes1116]

Wow, very sad for his family...married with three adult children.  Reminds me a little bit of honor suicides in Japanese and Chinese culture....the shame of public humiliation is so great that it causes one to take their own life.  I hope that was not the case here, as shame tends to be a temporary problem, while suicide is a permanent solution. 

[EliG]

While the police did not characterize the death as a suicide, Captain Balderrama said that Mr. McClendon drove “through a grassy area right before colliding into the embankment.” He added, “There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct and get back on the roadway and that didn’t occur.”

 

NYT

[augustabound]

It's sad that my first thought was suicide also.

 

I guess lots of people think that way, a kind of morbid curiosity.

When someone is trending on Twitter that hasn't been in the news recently, my first thought is of their death.

 

 

[Liberty]

Wow.  Talk about a downward spiral.  I just read "The Frackers" in January which profiles McClendon among others.  Unreal.

 

I also recently read Frackers, last summer, so I feel like I know him just a tiny bit. Always sad when situations like these happen, regardless of whether it's a suicide or not and of whether he was guilty of what he was accused of.

[EricSchleien]

I was sad about this today. I was planning on meeting him this summer. I first spoke to him when I was a freshman in college 10 years ago. I called into the CHK conference call and asked him a question. At the end I told him I was wicked pumped for the future of his company (little did I know of the future at the time lol) and it ended up being quite a funny conference call after that.

 

I ended up writing him a letter shortly after wanting to learn more about the natural gas industry and he mailed me a bunch of books. It was pretty awesome. We kept in touch via email over the years and I was going to see if he wanted to get together at his office this summer when I would be near by.

 

So despite his flaws, he made a contribution to my life and that I will forever be grateful for.

[Parsad]

I was sad about this today. I was planning on meeting him this summer. I first spoke to him when I was a freshman in college 10 years ago. I called into the CHK conference call and asked him a question. At the end I told him I was wicked pumped for the future of his company (little did I know of the future at the time lol) and it ended up being quite a funny conference call after that.

 

I ended up writing him a letter shortly after wanting to learn more about the natural gas industry and he mailed me a bunch of books. It was pretty awesome. We kept in touch via email over the years and I was going to see if he wanted to get together at his office this summer when I would be near by.

 

So despite his flaws, he made a contribution to my life and that I will forever be grateful for.

 

Few people are truly good or bad...we're all shades of both.  They're saying that Sandridge is the alledged co-conspirator to the price fixing. 

 

I voted against Tom Ward a couple of years back when there was a proxy there due to the exorbitant spending and compensation, but every time I met Tom in Toronto, he was very gracious and shared his knowledge with us. 

 

I'm sure Aubrey was similar, as he and Tom were very good friends.  Sad to see someone take their life like that...for him and all of those he left behind!

[rishig]

I was sad about this today. I was planning on meeting him this summer. I first spoke to him when I was a freshman in college 10 years ago. I called into the CHK conference call and asked him a question. At the end I told him I was wicked pumped for the future of his company (little did I know of the future at the time lol) and it ended up being quite a funny conference call after that.

 

I ended up writing him a letter shortly after wanting to learn more about the natural gas industry and he mailed me a bunch of books. It was pretty awesome. We kept in touch via email over the years and I was going to see if he wanted to get together at his office this summer when I would be near by.

 

So despite his flaws, he made a contribution to my life and that I will forever be grateful for.

 

Thanks for sharing. I am curious - what books he sent you to read to learn about the natural gas industry.

[Eye4Valu]

I am guessing that one of the books was called Supply and Demand.

[DCG]

I always thought he was one of the most shady CEOs on the planet (and have posted that in the past on here), but feel bad for his family.

[AzCactus]

I always thought he was one of the most shady CEOs on the planet (and have posted that in the past on here), but feel bad for his family.

 

Agree.  Not sure what the big deal here is.  He didn't seem to contribute an awful lot but it is sad for his family

[ERICOPOLY]

Unrelated completely to the man himself... but his car burst into flames and it wasn't a Tesla. 

 

Well, actually they didn't even bother to say what type of car it was.

 

But that it burst into flames "almost immediately" -- Tesla's don't do that.  There would have been a second major story running in the news about how a Tesla had caught fire, if it were in fact a Tesla.

 

[augustabound]

Unrelated completely to the man himself... but his car burst into flames and it wasn't a Tesla. 

 

Well, actually they didn't even bother to say what type of car it was.

 

Actually the Bloomberg article I read said it was a Chevy Tahoe. He doesn't seem like the Tesla type to me. You know what they're like.  :P

[EliG]

The car was powered by compressed natural gas.

 

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/energy/embattled-oilman-aubrey-mcclendon-dies-in-single-vehicle-wreck/article_fa1ed472-327e-582c-9d80-693b988c0325.html

 

McClendon’s 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe crashed about 9 a.m. into a bridge on Midwest Boulevard between Memorial and NE 122, the Oklahoma City Fire Department reported.

 

“He pretty much drove straight into the wall,” police Capt. Paco Balderrama said. “There was plenty of opportunity to correct or go back to the roadway. That didn’t occur."

 

The CNG-powered car was engulfed in flames.

[ERICOPOLY]

A Tesla is probably not an effective suicide vehicle, for that matter.  It is probably one of the safest cars made in a collision with a solid wall (as was the case here), and you certainly can't kill yourself with carbon monoxide in the garage unless you have a BBQ in the back seat or something.

 

GM is probably cringing at the fact that a person has selected one of their cars (a Chevy Tahoe) as a sure fire way to end their life in.  No pun intended (I noticed the pun when I previewed my post).

 

 

[kevin4u2]

I always thought he was one of the most shady CEOs on the planet (and have posted that in the past on here), but feel bad for his family.

 

The corporate governance at CHK was the absolute worst.  No doubt some bad stuff was going to come out.  All one has to do is read the proxy materials.

 

The best example was in December 2008 when the company purchased an extensive collection of historical maps of the southwest from McClendon for $12.1 million.  Why the company would purchase these from him is an interesting question and an even bigger question is how was the purchase price determined.  Ironically the sale of the "maps" was applied as a credit against costs incurred by McClendon for participating in the "Founders Well Participation Program", a program that allowed the founders (Ward and McClendon) to participate in a 2-1/2% working interest in every well drilled by CHK. 

 

Behavior like this gives capitalism a bad name. 

 

I was especially surprised when Lou Simpson joined the BOD in 2011.  I was not, however, surprised to hear of his resignation less than two years later.  He likely didn't agree with the business ethics of the extremely well paid BOD's. 

 

[Uccmal]

Murder, perhaps.  I guess we will have to wait for the toxicology report, coroners report, and the car inspection.  If he was indicted there may be a number of people who didn't want him talking. 

 

BTW: I am not normally a conspiracy theorist. 

 

 

[Uccmal]

I always thought he was one of the most shady CEOs on the planet (and have posted that in the past on here), but feel bad for his family.

 

The corporate governance at CHK was the absolute worst.  No doubt some bad stuff was going to come out.  All one has to do is read the proxy materials.

 

The best example was in December 2008 when the company purchased an extensive collection of historical maps of the southwest from McClendon for $12.1 million.  Why the company would purchase these from him is an interesting question and an even bigger question is how was the purchase price determined.  Ironically the sale of the "maps" was applied as a credit against costs incurred by McClendon for participating in the "Founders Well Participation Program", a program that allowed the founders (Ward and McClendon) to participate in a 2-1/2% working interest in every well drilled by CHK. 

 

Behavior like this gives capitalism a bad name. 

 

I was especially surprised when Lou Simpson joined the BOD in 2011.  I was not, however, surprised to hear of his resignation less than two years later.  He likely didn't agree with the business ethics of the extremely well paid BOD's. 

 

 

This was covered on the Chesapeake thread years ago - stuff about the map room, and the sleazy drilling deals.  I guess Tom Ward will be the next greaseball to be indicted.