Barry Rogers

Barry Rogers was a power trader on Enron North America’s East Power Trading desk who specialized in Northeast electricity markets including NYISO, PJM, and NEPOOL. Before transitioning to trading around October 2000, he spent two years in Enron’s Corporate Development Group where he played an instrumental role in the sale of peaker plants to Allegheny Energy and Cinergy, the latter transaction facilitated by his father’s position at Cinergy Corp. Rogers joined Enron in approximately 1998 and remained through the bankruptcy, departing in February 2002 for a position at Cinergy while enrolling in the Executive MBA program at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Rogers’s email archive in the Enron corpus contains 8,955 messages from 450 unique senders, spanning January 1980 to November 2002 with primary activity concentrated between December 1999 and December 2001.

Career at Enron

Corporate Development Group (1998-2000)

Rogers began his Enron career in the Corporate Development Group, where he focused on evaluating peaker plant acquisitions and dispositions. Peaker plants are power generation facilities designed to operate during periods of peak electricity demand, and Enron had invested heavily in constructing these assets during the late 1990s as part of its merchant power strategy.

During this period, Rogers worked on financial modeling for power generation assets and managed the “99 Peakers” portfolio through construction and eventual sale. His key accomplishment was leading the disposition of peaker plants to two major utilities:

Allegheny Energy Sale: Rogers led the sale of peaker assets from the “99 Peakers” portfolio to Allegheny Energy.

Cinergy Sales: Rogers negotiated the sale of the Brownsville and Caledonia peaker plants to Cinergy Corp around 2000. As he later wrote to CEO Ken Lay, “I was the one who convinced my Dad to buy those two peakers.” His father worked at Cinergy (email: [email protected]), and Rogers leveraged this family connection to facilitate the transaction.

Rogers coordinated with legal counsel including Stuart Zisman on confidentiality agreements and deal documentation, and worked closely with Corporate Development analyst Jinsung Myung on financial modeling for the Cinergy transactions.

East Power Trading (2000-2002)

Around October 2000, Rogers transitioned from Corporate Development to the East Power Trading desk, where he reported to manager Don Miller. Despite his relatively junior status, Rogers took on what he described as “senior trader type” responsibilities, focusing on Northeast electricity markets.

His trading responsibilities encompassed:

Market Coverage: Rogers traded across three major northeastern power markets: NYISO (New York Independent System Operator), PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection), and NEPOOL (New England Power Pool).

Product Scope: He traded day-ahead, hour-ahead, and real-time power products, managing the EPMI-ST-NY (Short-term New York) and Hourly Northeast trading books.

Technical Analysis: Rogers monitored ISO dispatch operations, tracked transmission constraints and locational marginal pricing (LMP), analyzed gas-to-power spreads, and followed virtual trading programs and TCC (Transmission Congestion Contract) auctions.

Platform Expertise: He used EnronOnline’s Stack Manager platform for order management and the desk-to-desk internal trading system.

Key Correspondents

Rogers’s correspondence patterns reflect his dual career trajectory from corporate development to trading. His top contacts span both worlds:

The heavy correspondence with Jinsung Myung and Jonathan Hoff documents Rogers’s corporate development work on peaker acquisitions and sales, while the Don Miller relationship (353 emails) reflects his daily trading supervision after the transition to East Power.

Trading Expertise

Rogers developed specialized knowledge of northeastern electricity market mechanics that distinguished his work on the trading desk.

NYISO Operations

Rogers tracked New York’s complex market structure including virtual trading opportunities, TCC auctions for hedging transmission congestion, and locational ICAP (Installed Capacity) requirements. He monitored Security Constrained Dispatch (SCD) in real-time and understood Out-of-Merit (OOM) dispatch procedures that could affect position profitability.

PJM and NEPOOL Markets

For PJM, Rogers followed LMP pricing dynamics, unit commitment processes, Max Gen risks during peak demand periods, and TLR (Transmission Loading Relief) procedures. He also tracked the evolving NEPOOL/PJM integration discussions and their implications for market rule changes.

Analytical Capabilities

Rogers analyzed gas-to-power spreads to understand how natural gas pricing affected power economics, and applied seasonal trading strategies that accounted for differences in summer versus winter capacity availability.

Crisis Period

Email to Ken Lay (October 3, 2001)

As Enron’s crisis intensified in October 2001, Rogers wrote directly to CEO Ken Lay to defend the power trading group. In his message, he provided a concise summary of his career: “I have been in the power trading group for about a year now. I came over from the corp. development group after we sold the peakers to Allegheny and to Cinergy. I was the one who convinced my Dad to buy those two peakers.”

Rogers vouched for his colleagues: “The power trading group is a really solid group of individuals.” He also emphasized his tenure: “I have been with Enron for over four years now.” Ken Lay responded positively, acknowledging Rogers’s contributions to the company.

Whether this communication reflected genuine confidence in Enron’s fundamentals or represented strategic positioning during an uncertain period, it demonstrates the anxiety pervading even junior employees as the company’s situation deteriorated.

Post-Bankruptcy Transition

After Enron’s December 2001 bankruptcy, Rogers spent several weeks working with the estate on asset sales before accepting a position at Cinergy Corp. He received a competing offer from UBS Warburg (which was acquiring parts of Enron’s trading operations) but declined for what he described as “personal reasons.”

Departure (February 28, 2002)

Rogers communicated his departure plans to Stanley Horton in late February 2002.

The move to Cinergy reunited Rogers with his father and allowed him to continue trading while pursuing broader operational and educational goals. His enrollment in the University of Chicago Booth School’s Executive MBA program suggests ambition to move beyond trading into management roles.

Email Activity Patterns

Rogers’s email activity tracked his career evolution and Enron’s trajectory:

The October 2000 peak of 1,570 emails coincides with his transition to the trading desk and reflects the intensity of real-time power trading operations. The dramatic decline after Enron’s crisis reflects reduced business activity and his preparation for departure.

Personal Background

Rogers was married to Megan, a teacher, around 2000. He maintained interests in tennis, skiing, and investing, subscribing to publications including the Motley Fool and Wall Street Transcript. His political leanings were Republican; he expressed enthusiasm about the Bush 2000 inauguration in contemporary correspondence.

After departing Enron, Rogers continued providing trading advice to his father regarding Cinergy’s summer power positions in 2002.

Legal Status

Barry Rogers does not appear in Department of Justice or SEC proceedings related to the Enron investigation. As a junior trader whose role focused on legitimate power market activities and corporate development transactions, he was not among the individuals charged in connection with Enron’s collapse. His orderly departure to Cinergy and pursuit of an MBA suggest he emerged from the Enron experience with his career trajectory intact.

See Also

• Don Miller - East Power Trading manager, Rogers’s supervisor
• Stanley Horton - Enron executive Rogers informed of his departure
• Ken Lay - CEO who received Rogers’s defense of the trading group

References

This article draws on 8,955 emails from Barry Rogers’s preserved archive in the Enron corpus, with primary activity spanning December 1999 to December 2001. Key documentation includes correspondence with Don Miller regarding trading operations, Jinsung Myung regarding Cinergy financial modeling, and direct communications with Ken Lay and Stanley Horton during the crisis period. The research file notes that the corpus contains significant metadata artifacts from EDRM processing.