What did you have
against selling eggs?
There was no differentiation of products, so no excitement. At Huntsman
Corp., 70 to 75 percent of our products are very high-tech chemical products.
They have patents and, in some cases, we are the only ones in the world making
them. In the egg business, an egg is an egg. That’s why I helped create the
first plastic egg carton, just to show some ingenuity.
Where is all the ingenuity now?  China has about 40 engineers for every lawyer we have here. We are losing our
industrial base rather dramatically. The basic industrial products that gave
America its might in the 19th and 20th centuries have suffered from the
environmental issues that have captured the day. There has been so much
over-regulation of industries, and litigation and problems for investors with
respect to return on capital. But we do see chemical engineers and mechanical
engineers supplanted by molecular biologists and those studying genetics and
cures for cancer. We’re building a remarkable workforce at the Huntsman Cancer
Institute at the University of Utah. Our cancer research and many of the higher
tech areas of biochemistry are exploding in the United States.
You may be better known as a cancer survivor who founded the Huntsman Cancer
Institute than for the company that has made your philanthropy possible.
As a general rule for life, it would be nice to see those people who are
blessed make charitable contributions. There are many families, including yours
truly, who can do more. Saying that taxes are our contribution is absolutely
wrong. Our taxes are the license we pay to become wealthy. That’s simply the tax
we pay to enter the game, and it’s an honor to pay taxes. When they say lower
the capital gains rate, I say why? Most of the people paying capital gains are
not going to miss the money.
An IPO can change everything, especially for a company in which most of the
board has been comprised of family members.
We have absolutely changed the composition of the board of directors. Our
board is now very independent. They’ve all been CEOs, chairmen of major
companies—except for one who is a trial lawyer who has beaten the chemical
industry to death, so I wanted him on our side of the family. But their values
are in line—we are looking for leadership, ethics, efficiency and productivity,
and we will find management teams that are capable of producing it. I don’t
think there’s anything inconsistent. Our family met and decided we are entering
a new era and everyone is very sensitive to the fact: delivery under ethical and
honorable conditions.
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