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| Visions & Revisions |
Ethical Intentions
09/01/2005
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Jon Huntsman, devout Mormon, father of nine, grandfather of 52, protégé of
Armand Hammer, philanthropist, cancer survivor and founder of the Salt Lake
City–based Huntsman Corp., has seen his ethical standards put to the test often
in his career.
He built Huntsman Corp. into one of the world’s largest
privately held chemical companies by acquiring troubled competitors. Huntsman
split every dollar of free cash flow and put half back into his business and
contributed the other half to various charities. But a public listing of his
corporation in February, which raised almost $1.5 billion, now forces Huntsman
to answer to shareholders.
When he cashed in his own shares for more than
$100 million, he donated the money to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, as well as
the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which is both his alma
mater and the publisher of his optimistically titled new book, Winners Never
Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have
Forgotten).
Huntsman, 68, grew up destitute in Blackfoot, Idaho. He
sold eggs from a pickup truck for his father-in-law, a job he describes as “the
worst in America.” But this experience helped him to develop the world’s first
polystyrene egg cartons which made him a fortune when he sold a similar concept
to McDonald’s.
He recently spoke with Worth features editor Jan Alexander
about becoming a billionaire without cheating.In 1994, you told the Chicago Tribune: “I remember too vividly going into
meat markets with my mother after they closed to ask for the leftovers because
we couldn’t afford to buy meat.” Are you a role model for poor kids today? My situation was rather unique. I went to high school near Stanford
[University]. I didn’t go there because my father was a professor at Stanford,
but because he was a graduate student at Stanford at the ripe old age of 40, so
we lived in student housing. I was elected president of the student body. When a
recruiter from Wharton visited, the principal called me. I’d never heard of
Wharton before. They were kind enough to give me two scholarships since our
family was of fairly modest means. I couldn’t afford to travel back and forth,
so I hitchhiked eight times across the United States.
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