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College News
WVU ENGINEERING AND MINERAL RESOURCES Volume 3 Issue 1
Inaugural
Glen H. Hiner
Distinguished
Lecture
A REAL-WORLD ETHICS
LESSON
“That article prompted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
investigate,” said Grisé. “You’d be amazed what a Time magazine
cover will do to pick up the pace of regulatory enforcement.”
In the end, the company’s nuclear fleet endured a two-year
shutdown that nearly led to bankruptcy; and the company paid a
$10 million fine, the largest ever in the nuclear industry.
“As a company,” said Grisé, “it was our darkest moment. Ten years
later now, I can see it was also our defining moment, one that was
designed to be a lifelong lesson and a catalyst for change for all
who witnessed it.”
“Ethical considerations need to be a true part of every business
plan,” said Grisé, in summing up what she and her company
learned from the experience. “Lasting change in a company’s
culture must come from within. And, perhaps most important,
companies need to make room for questioning attitudes.”
“In the end,” she concluded, “ethical behavior is a personal choice
we all make every day. Ethics is not about results, but about how
we achieve them. We all know what is right and what is wrong.
The challenge lies in finding the courage to stand up for our
convictions.”
Cheryl W. Grisé
delivered the
inaugural lecture in
the Glen H. Hiner
Distinguished Lecture
Series last fall.
The Mineral Resources Building auditorium was filled to
capacity in September for the inaugural lecture in the
Glen H. Hiner Distinguished Lecture Series. Cheryl W.
Grisé, an executive from Northeast Utilities (NU), spoke on
“Energy and Ethics.”
Grisé has been with NU since 1980, rising to her current position
as chief executive officer of the company’s principal operating
subsidiaries. In 1996, when she was vice president of human
resources, a senior nuclear engineer in the company’s nuclear
division went to the media about safety violations at the
company’s largest nuclear facility. The result: a cover story in Time
magazine.
Grisé earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her law degree from Thomas
Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California, and completed
the Yale Executive Management Program. She is a member of the
State Bar of California and the boards of directors of MetLife and
the Dana Corporation.
“We were very fortunate to have a leader of Ms. Grisé’s caliber
speak to our students and faculty on such a relevant topic,” said
Dean Gene Cilento.
The Glen H. Hiner Distinguished Lecture Series is named in
honor of the outstanding alumnus who, in 2005, established an
endowment to support the deanship of the College of
Engineering and Mineral Resources at WVU. Glen Hiner
graduated from WVU’s Department of Electrical Engineering in
1957, then embarked on an outstanding 35-year career with
General Electric. In 1992, he became chief executive officer of
Owens Corning. He has served on several College advisory
committees, and as a visiting professor in the WVU College of
Business and Economics, and is a member of the WVU
Foundation Board of Directors.
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