Rebecca P. Mark-Jusbasche (born August 13, 1954, Kirksville, Missouri), known during her international business career as Rebecca Mark, is the former head of Enron International, a subsidiary of Enron. She was also CEO of Azurix Corp., a publicly traded water services company originally developed by Enron International.[1] Mark was promoted to Vice Chairman of Enron in 1998 and was a member of its board of directors.[2] She resigned from Enron in August 2000.[3]

Since leaving Enron in 2000, she has been focused on water, energy technology, and agricultural projects.

Early life, education, and early career

Mark was born Rebecca Sue Pulliam in Kirksville, Missouri, and grew up on a farm.[4] She attended William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, for two years. She then transferred to Baylor University in Waco, Texas,[5] where she received a BA in psychology in 1976,[6] and a master's degree in International Management in 1977.[6]

Pulliam began her career in Houston, Texas, at First City National Bank.[5] She married Thomas Mark, and had twin sons; the couple later divorced.[5][7][8] In 1982, she joined an energy company called Continental Resources, which eventually became part of Enron.[5] In 1988, Mark entered Harvard Business School while working part-time for Enron, and received an MBA in 1990.[9][6]

Career at Enron

Mark started in a finance position for Enron's predecessor company's pipeline businesses in 1982.[10] By 1986 she joined a small group within Enron developing cogeneration and independent power plants using natural gas.[10][11] After a two-year stint working part-time for Enron while attending Harvard Business School, she returned to Houston and became head of the newly formed Enron Development Corp.

As Enron grew, Mark was responsible for its global power and pipeline assets outside of North America.[4][9][10] Enron Development Corp. became Enron International in 1993,[12] and Mark became Enron International's CEO in 1996,[13] developing and operating power and pipeline assets around the globe and greatly expanding Enron's global portfolio.[14]

In the late 1990s, conflict surrounding the company’s ideologies occurred amongst senior leadership and Mark’s sector of the business dissolved.[15][16][9] The board eventually saw Mark's utility asset businesses as a drag on the company's return potential, and sought to further expand Enron's financial trading businesses while selling off its assets.[17][18][16]

In 1998, Mark left Enron to form an international water company, Azurix, starting with the purchase of its main asset, British water utility Wessex Water. Azurix went public with an IPO in June 1999 but Enron remained a key stakeholder.[19][20] According to Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, authors of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, with Azurix barely off the ground, Enron quickly "sucked out over $1 billion in cash while loading it up with debt."[19] In August 2000, after Azurix stock took a plunge following its earnings report,[21] Mark resigned from Azurix and Enron.[22][16] Azurix assets, including Wessex, were eventually sold by Enron.[23]

In 1998 and 1999, Mark was listed as one of Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Women" in American business.[24][25]

After Enron

Mark's exit from Enron in August 2000 was at a fortunate time, when Enron's stock was at its peak;[26] she sold her stock for $82.5 million[5] long before the company collapsed in 2001. She was never accused of wrongdoing in the ensuing series of scandals and prosecutions.[27][4]

Since 2000, she has been president of Resource Development Partners, which invests in water, energy technology, and agricultural projects, including Dredgit Corporation, which specializes in marine dredging and public and private de-watering.[28] She has been Chairman of Dredgit Corporation since 2013.[29][30][31]

She owns and operates cattle ranches in New Mexico and Colorado,[32] raising organic produce, grass-fed beef, and horses.[33] She serves on the board of the Hermann Park Conservancy in Houston.[34]

Personal life

Mark married Michael Jusbasche in October 1999, and hyphenated her name to Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche.[5] She has twin sons born ca.1986 to her brief first marriage,[5] and after her second marriage in 1999, she adopted a two-year-old boy from Kazakhstan.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Tan, Willie. Principles of Project and Infrastructure Finance. Routledge, 2007. p. 48.
  2. ↑ Azurix Corp. "Form S-1". Filed with Securities and Exchange Commission. Nasdaq.com. March 15, 1999.
  3. ↑ Clarke, Thomas. International Corporate Governance: A Comparative Approach. Routledge, 2007. p. 324.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hawn, Carleen. "The Women of Enron: A Separate Peace". Fast Company. September 2003.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Frey, Jennifer (April 17, 2002). "Water Over the Dam; Enron Strategist Rebecca Mark's Smartest Move May Have Been Getting Fired". Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 15, 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 BusinessWeek, 2000.
  7. ↑ Bryce, Robert. Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron. PublicAffairs, 2004. p. 97.
  8. ↑ Bryce, Robert. "Diva of the Deal". Houston Press. October 10, 2002.
  9. 1 2 3 Brenner, Marie. "The Enron Wars". Vanity Fair. April 2002.
  10. 1 2 3 Mack, Toni. "High finance with a touch of theater". Forbes. April 18, 1998.
  11. ↑ Batson, Neal. Final report of Neal Batson, court-appointed examiner: in re--Enron Corp., et al, debtors. United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, 2003. p. 7.
  12. ↑ Dun & Bradstreet. Financial Risk Management. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2006. p. 197.
  13. ↑ Walton, Peter J. The Routledge Companion to Fair Value and Financial Reporting. Routledge, 2007. p. 237.
  14. ↑ "Rebecca Mark Is Paddling As Fast As She Can". BusinessWeek. April 30, 2000.
  15. ↑ Thomas, Evan. "Enron's Dirty Laundry". Newsweek. March 10, 2002.
  16. 1 2 3 Smith, Rebecca and Aaron Lucchetti. "Rebecca Mark's Exit Leaves Enron's Azurix Treading Deep Water". Originally in: Wall Street Journal. August 28, 2000.
  17. ↑ Clarke, Thomas. International Corporate Governance: A Comparative Approach. Routledge, 2007. p. 42.
  18. ↑ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "The Role of the Board of Directors in Enron's Collapse". Committee on Governmental Affairs; United States Senate. May 7, 2002.
  19. 1 2 McLean, Bethany and Peter Elkind. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Portfolio, 2003. p. 250.
  20. ↑ "Azurix's giant IPO stays afloat". Market Watch. June 10, 1999.
  21. ↑ McLean, Bethany and Peter Elkind. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Portfolio, 2003. p. 257.
  22. ↑ Eichenwald, Kurt. Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story. Random House, 2005. pp. 362–364.
  23. ↑ Grigg, Neil S. Water Finance: Public Responsibilities and Private Opportunities. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. p. 76.
  24. ↑ Creswell, Julie and Dina Bass. "Ranking The 50 Most Powerful Women: FORTUNE'S FIRST ANNUAL LOOK AT THE WOMEN WHO MOST INFLUENCE CORPORATE AMERICA". Fortune. October 12, 1998.
  25. ↑ Folpe, Jane M., Deirdre P. Lanning, and Tyler Maroney. "FORTUNE's 50 Most Powerful Women". Fortune. October 25, 1999.
  26. ↑ McLean, Bethany and Peter Elkind. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Portfolio, 2003. p. 318.
  27. ↑ Sparrow, Paul. Handbook of International Human Resource Management: Integrating People, Process, and Context. John Wiley & Sons, 2010. p. 476.
  28. ↑ Water Innovation Summit 2014 – Participant Bios. Cleantech Group.
  29. ↑ Mukul, Jyoti; Jog, Sanjay. "Seeking revival, Dabhol embraces a brand new plan". Business Standard. October 29, 2015.
  30. ↑ "WILC: Women In Leadership Conference". Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business. February 6, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche". Dredgit.com. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  32. ↑ "Telluride Foundation Names Five to Board of Directors, New Co-Chair". The Watch. February 18, 2009.
  33. ↑ Rebecca Mark-Jusbasche. LinkedIn.
  34. ↑ Hermann Park Conservancy – Board of Directors. HermannPark.org.
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