In My Time - Dick Cheney [131]
A Canadian businessman, Fred Mannix, invited me to the fabled Ristigouche Salmon Club in New Brunswick. The club was established in 1880, and wealthy American and Canadian members used to make the trip up there in private railway cars to fish for salmon. A. N. Cheney, one of my ancestors, who was far from wealthy, but a noted fly fisherman, used to fish with a friend about six miles above the club for what he called “the grandest of all fish.” Together with another friend, Charles Orvis, A. N. Cheney edited Fishing with the Fly, a book that has become a fly-fishing classic.
IN 1994 I WAS invited by John Georges, the chairman and CEO of International Paper, to come to the Rocky Brook Salmon Camp on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. The camp was once part of International Paper’s timber holdings, which are mostly sold off now, but the company had the good sense to hold on to this terrific salmon camp. The other guests with me that week were Roger Smith of General Motors; my friend and pollster, Bob Teeter; Patrick Noonan, who was head of the Conservation Fund; and Tom Cruikshank, who was chairman and CEO of Halliburton.
I’d never met Tom Cruikshank before and didn’t know he was getting ready to retire and was looking for a replacement. But it wouldn’t have mattered if I had, because I wasn’t looking for work. I was there to fish, and that’s what the group did each morning and late afternoon. At dinner, we’d sit around the fire and have long and sometimes contentious debates about politics and public policy.
A few months after Rocky Brook, I answered the phone one day in my kitchen in Jackson, and it was Tom Cruikshank calling. He told me about his planned retirement and about Halliburton’s search. He said they hadn’t had any success finding a replacement and that he had mentioned my name as a possible candidate to several members of his board. They were intrigued with the possibility, and he was calling to see if I could fly down to Dallas to meet with them.
I was also intrigued. Halliburton was the second-largest oil services company in the world. They owned Brown & Root, a large construction company with deep roots in Texas and reach around the globe. Altogether, the company had some one hundred thousand employees operating in 130 countries. I agreed to make the trip and landed in the Halliburton plane at Love Field a few days later. I had dinner at Tom Cruikshank’s house with several board members, including Anne Armstrong, whom I had known when she was ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Ford. Bob Crandall, the chairman and CEO of American Airlines, was there, as was W. R. Howell, the chairman of JCPenney. We talked about Halliburton and what they were looking for in a CEO. It was a pleasant evening, and they flew me back to Wyoming when it was over.
A few days later Tom called to say they wanted to offer me the job. I accepted, knowing we would have to work out the details, but in principle I was on board. I think part of the reason they wanted me was my international experience. As much as half the company’s income was coming from overseas. I had successfully run the Department of Defense, a significant management challenge, and the personal recommendations of board members such as Anne Armstrong helped.
I flew back to Dallas for the public announcement that I was the new CEO and would be reporting for work October 1, 1995. Tom and I would share responsibilities for the first ninety days and then he’d step down and I’d take over January 1, 1996.
During those ninety days, Tom and I traveled the country visiting Halliburton operations. We visited Duncan, Oklahoma, the home of Halliburton—and, as I was to discover, the home of my friend Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, who’d grown up living next door to Erle Halliburton. We also spent time in the field, where I learned about the sophisticated technology that is part of a modern drilling operation. I began to meet Halliburton customers and employees and to learn about the full scope of the business.