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Playgirl's 'Men of Enron' Magazine Debuts

September 17, 2002 08:41 PM ET

By C. Bryson Hull

HOUSTON (Reuters) - If only the members of Enron Corp.'s management team had shown this much to the investing public.

Playgirl magazine's "Men of Enron" issue hit newsstands on Tuesday, and five current and former male employees of the bankrupt energy trader shed all or most of their clothes for a 14-page photo spread called "The Rise of Enron."

"If someone is going to offer me some money for the way I look, over which I have some control, then I'm all the better for it," said Ronald Williams of his decision to appear nude.

The 35-year-old Houston native, a former competitive intelligence specialist in Enron's broadband unit, told Reuters he has been working four jobs to support himself since he was laid off when Enron filed bankruptcy last December. Williams, who is single, said the money helped him decide to pose.

"I'm just looking for a little security. If I get a sugar mama out of this, that's great," Williams joked.

Christopher Figueroa, a 34-year-old New York native who worked in the natural gas trading unit and is now a contractor helping Enron unwind its trading book, said he was the only one of the five "who didn't do the full monty."

Figueroa, who was two months away from completing Enron's prestigious associate program when the company went under, said he declined to take it all off for personal and professional reasons.

"They would have paid me more, but money wasn't going to make me alter my principles," he said in an interview.

Playgirl editor-in-chief Michelle Zipp declined to say how much the men, who were culled from more than 50 applicants, were paid.

"We paid them more than they made on their stock options," she said.

Neither Figueroa nor Williams would say how much they got for shedding their clothes.

A member of Enron's public relations staff declined comment.

Playgirl, published by privately held Blue Horizons Media, has always billed itself as the female answer to Playboy, the men's magazine that is the flagship of Playboy Enterprises Inc. The two magazines are not related.

Playboy's "Women of Enron" issued debuted to serious fanfare in Houston in June, including a packed magazine signing featuring four of the models that posed. Zipp said she is planning a similar signing as well.