nyse kbr industry engineering construction downstream petroleum industry private military contractor gas monetization hydrocarbons government services service founded 1901 m.w. kellogg 1940 s brown & root 1962 halliburton 2006 kbr inc. headquarters kbr tower houston texas u.s. key people stuart bradie ceo june 2014 brian ferraioli cfo revenue 7.2 billion fy 2013 1 operating income 308 million fy 2013 1 net income 75 million fy 2013 1 total assets 5.4 billion fy 2013 1 total equity 2.44 billion fy 2013 1 number of employees 27 000 december 2013 1 website kbr.com kbr inc. formerly kellogg brown & root is an american engineering procurement and construction company formerly a subsidiary of halliburton . the company also has large offices in arlington virginia birmingham alabama and newark delaware in the united states and leatherhead in the uk . after halliburton acquired dresser industries in 1998 dresser s engineering subsidiary the m. w. kellogg co. was merged with halliburton s construction subsidiary brown & root to form kellogg brown & root . kbr and its predecessors have received many contracts with the u.s. military including during world war ii the vietnam war and the iraq war . the company s corporate offices are in the kbr tower in downtown houston . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 m. w. kellogg 1.2 brown & root 1.3 halliburton years 1.4 formation of kbr inc. 1.5 planned office facility 2 kosovo 3 afghanistan 4 cuba 5 iraq 6 controversy 6.1 political connections and corruption 6.2 shell companies in cayman islands 6.3 bribing nigerian officials 6.4 waxman allegations 6.5 professional negligence 6.6 employee safety 6.7 sexual assault and abuse allegations 6.8 human trafficking lawsuit 6.9 burn pits lawsuits 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit kbr tower the headquarters of kbr and a part of cullen center with the downtown houston ymca ahead 500 jefferson also a part of cullen center has additional kbr offices 2 kbr offices on clinton drive 2 3 within the boundaries of the east end and the fifth ward . 4 5 it is the former headquarters of brown & root . 6 as of december 2010 kbr no longer operates this office . 7 m. w. kellogg edit in 1901 morris woodruff kellogg founded the m. w. kellogg company in new york city . the company was incorporated in 1905 and its headquarters was moved to jersey city new jersey . initially kellogg s main business was power plant construction and fabrication of power plant components but the development of hammer forge welding techniques helped ready the company to move into refining as the petroleum industry developed . kellogg was announced the number one construction company for years 1993 to 1995 . this is mainly due to their work in the dulles greenway . kellogg s entry into process engineering initially focused on the fleming cracking process but in the 1920s kellogg partnered with the texas company texaco and standard oil of indiana to purchase the cross thermal cracking process . kellogg set up one of the first petroleum laboratories in the country in 1926 to commercialize and then license the technology . this led to kellogg building some 130 units in the united states and abroad . in the 1930s and 1940s kellogg worked with leading refiners on various technologies . for the war effort these developments led to the construction of six hydroreformer units twenty fluid catalytic cracking units and the only complete refinery built during world war ii . even bigger than the refining work was k 25 the gaseous diffusion plant at oak ridge tennessee built as part of the manhattan project . this period also included the development of the benedict webb rubin bwr equation of state which has since become an industry mainstay and provided the basis for kellogg s lead in cryogenics . the 1950s kellogg technology expanded into steam pyrolysis orthoflow fluid catalytic cracking phenol from cumene and coal to synthetic fuels technologies and the 1960s saw the growth in helium recovery ethylene and the development of kellogg s ammonia process . in 1970 kellogg moved from new york city to houston texas and in 1975 they completed the move by relocating the research and development lab . the 1970s saw kellogg become the first american contractor to receive contracts from the people s republic of china . kellogg s international work expanded with the major ammonia complexes in china indonesia and mexico as well as lng liquefaction plant in algeria and two receiving terminals in the united states the world s largest lpg plant in kuwait and four fluid catalytic cracking units in mexico . the 1980s saw continuation of global activity in lng and ethylene with millisecond furnaces starting up in the united states . kellogg underwent numerous acquisitions and name changes through until 1987 when it was acquired by dresser industries a provider of integrated services and project management for the oil and gas industry . 8 ten years later halliburton acquired dresser and combined kellogg with brown & root to create a new larger subsidiary kellogg brown & root kbr . 9 brown & root edit brown & root was founded in texas in 1919 by herman brown and daniel root with money provided by root brown s brother in law . root soon died and herman brown s younger brother george r. brown joined the company in 1922 according to robert a. caro s the path to power . the company began its operations by building roads in texas . one of its first large scale projects according to the book cadillac desert was building a dam on the texas colorado river near austin during the depression years . for assistance in federal payments the company turned to the local congressman lyndon b. johnson . brown & root was the principal source of campaign funds after johnson s initial run for congress in 1937 in return for persuading the bureau of reclamation to change its rules against paying for a dam on land the federal government did not own a decision that had to go all the way to president franklin delano roosevelt . after other very profitable construction projects for the federal government brown & root gave massive sums of cash for johnson s first run for the u.s. senate in 1941 . 10 during world war ii brown & root built the naval air station corpus christi and its subsidiary brown shipbuilding produced a series of warships for the u.s. government . in 1947 brown & root built one of the world s first offshore oil platforms . brown & root continued to pour money into lyndon johnson s career not just making massive contributions to johnson s campaign funds but also making and causing their subcontractors and others beholden to them to make unusually large political contributions to enable johnson to manipulate and influence other members of the house and senate to obtain further huge contracts and other benefits such as continuing the oil depletion allowance and the pricing of natural gas for johnson s friends in business . according to tracy kidder s book mountains beyond mountains brown & root was a contractor in the p ligre dam project . the project was designed by the u.s. army corps of engineers and financed by the export import bank of the united states . halliburton years edit following the death of herman brown halliburton energy services acquired brown & root in december 1962 . according to dan briody who wrote a book on the subject the company became part of a consortium of four companies that built about 85 percent of the infrastructure needed by the navy during the vietnam war . at the height of the anti war movement of the 1960s brown & root was derided as burn & loot by protesters . in 1989 halliburton acquired another major engineering and construction contractor c. f. braun inc. of alhambra california and merged it into brown & root . 11 from 1995 to 2002 halliburton kbr was awarded at least 2.5 billion to construct and run military bases some in secret locations as part of the u.s. army s logistics civil augmentation program logcap . 12 the extent of their services included a vast array of logistical operations historically under the jurisdiction of the military . such operations included laundry services meal services dining halls entertainment internet and cable access and recreation basketball courts and gym equipment . in september 2005 under a competitive bid contract it won in july 2005 to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters kbr started assessment of the cleanup and reconstruction of gulf coast marine and navy facilities damaged in the aftermath of hurricane katrina . the facilities include naval station pascagoula naval station gulfport the john c. stennis space center in mississippi two smaller u.s. navy facilities in new orleans louisiana and others in the gulf coast region . 13 formation of kbr inc. edit halliburton announced on april 5 2007 that it had separated from kbr which had been its contracting engineering and construction unit as a part of the company for 44 years . 14 the move was prefaced by a statement registered with the united states securities and exchange commission on april 15 2006 stating that halliburton planned to sell up to 20 percent of its kbr stock on the new york stock exchange nyse . on november 16 2006 kbr shares were offered for the public in an initial public offering with shares priced at 17 . the shares closed up more than 22 percent to 20.75 a share on the first trading day . 15 on may 7 2008 the company announced that it would acquire birmingham alabama based engineering and construction firm be & k for 550 million . be & k plans to remain headquartered in birmingham . 16 planned office facility edit in 2008 the firm announced that a new office facility would appear at the intersection of the grand parkway and interstate 10 in unincorporated western harris county texas between houston and katy . 17 the new complex would have been in close proximity to the energy corridor area of houston . 18 kbr planned to continue to have a corporate presence in downtown houston . 19 in december kbr said that it would not continue with the plans due to a weakened economy . 20 in january 2010 kbr announced plans to extend its lease and expand its presence in downtown houston . the downtown expansion will replace the harris county plans . the new total of kbr leased space in downtown will be just over 1 200 000 square feet 110 000 m2 at completion . 21 kosovo edit in 1996 brown & root was awarded a contract to support u.s. and north atlantic treaty organization nato troops as part of the sfor operation in the balkan region . this contract was extended to also include kfor operations in kosovo starting in 1999 . camp bondsteel in kosovo was constructed by the 94th engineer construction battalion together with the private kellogg brown & root kbr under the direction of the army corps of engineers . 22 afghanistan edit kbr was awarded a 100 million contract in 2002 to build a new u.s. embassy in kabul afghanistan from the u.s. state department . kbr has also been awarded 15 logistics civil augmentation program logcap task orders worth more than 216 million for work under operation enduring freedom the military name for operations in afghanistan . these include establishing base camps at kandahar and bagram air base and training foreign troops from the republic of georgia . 23 cuba edit kbr has also been actively involved in the development of works in cuba . most notably sections of the u.s. naval base in guantanamo completed in 2006 . camp 6 the newest facility built for detainees at naval station guantanamo bay is