Driving the Bus With Paul Kaneb '60

Learning the tricks of the trade from his father, Kaneb worked at his family’s oil business Union Petroleum Corporation in Boston straight out of college, heading operations for most of the '60s. After selling the company in 1973, he saw an exciting opportunity for petroleum on the heels of the Arab oil embargo, which he describes as “really taking the ball out of the major oil companies' hands.”

 

By the following year, Kaneb had purchased George E. Warren Corporation. As owner and CEO, he expanded the small coal business into a diverse national enterprise with annual revenues exceeding $6 billion. George E. Warren, which distributes and trades gasoline, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products, soon developed a presence in more than 30 states across the country. Since 1989 the company's main headquarters have been in Vero Beach, Florida, where Kaneb currently lives.

 

Looking back on his many years at the helm of George E. Warren, Kaneb contends that the crux of his business hasn't changed all that much. “Though there have obviously been many advancements in the industry, we've been doing essentially the same things we've always done,” he says. His more recent research on the production of crude oil from algae, among other things, has made him a strong supporter of the more sustainability-minded direction of the industry. “This country's demand for energy and fossil fuels is enormous, but green is truly the way to go,” he says. “And whether it's coal and oil or algae and electric cars, we'll always be in the trading and distribution business.”

 

Stepping down from day-to-day operations of his company in 1989, Kaneb still holds partial ownership and occasionally consults with the company on management decisions. Reminiscing on his own career trajectory, he credits his small-business experience as a major factor in his growth as an executive. “Most people on the corporate path run on one track,” Kaneb says. “[Entrepreneurship] provides the individual with the wherewithal to wear many hats.”

 

Immovably modest about his own accomplishments at George E. Warren, Kaneb ultimately concedes that entrepreneurial success comes down to the ability to oversee a company's big-picture goals. “It’s really about having a vision, and then being able to empower others with that vision,” he says. “If I excelled at anything, that was what I was able to do best.”