Former energy executive David Crane is on a mission to
save the planet
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[November 20, 2018]
By Burt Helm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - What if one of the
largest U.S. coal-burning utilities became a leader in green energy?
When David W. Crane was chief executive of NRG Energy, he pursued that
vision, pushing the company to transform itself by investing in solar
power and electric vehicle charging networks.
Wall Street did not buy that - some believe his zeal cost him his job in
2015 - but the one-time lawyer and investment banker has not given up on
the planet.
Crane, 59, is dedicating his career to advising and investing in clean
energy, working for investment firm Pegasus Capital and serving as a
member of the B Team, an executive council dedicated to changing
business practices to improve the environment and society.
Crane reflects on the lessons he learned about money, business and
family, and shares why the Cranes do not donate to environmental causes
in the usual way.
Q: When you were a kid, what were your parents' attitudes toward money?
A: I grew up outside of Chicago, in a wealthy suburb called Lake Forest.
Back then, Lake Forest split itself into townies and the truly rich —
people who sent their kids to boarding school and Lake Forest Country
Day. We were townies. They made it clear that I was going to have to
work for a living: like, "There's not going to be anything coming at the
end of our lives for you."
Q: You went to Princeton, then Harvard Law School. Did they pressure you
to perform?
A: If anything, they did the opposite. In high school I was misdiagnosed
as having ulcers. Later it turned out to be Crohn's disease of the
stomach, I got half my stomach taken out.
Man, when you're 14 and people think you've got ulcers, every person
tells you to relax. So, I always tried to manifest this demeanor of
being relaxed and cool. I didn't want another person to tell me to chill
out.
Q: You have five children. Where does their work ethic come from?
A: If you treat extraordinary things as normal, kids just think that
it's normal. I think our youngest child did his first marathon when he
was seven. We don't make a big deal about it.
Q: Where did your fourth son get the idea to row across the ocean?
A: Pretty much everything good about them comes from their mother. She
insisted that they take a gap year before college. It was actually my
first son that started this thing — he wanted to use that time to become
the first openly gay person to climb the seven summits. Our second child
biked across Africa, and our third child, our only girl, walked the
Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.
[to top of second column] |
NRG Energy President and CEO David Crane participates in the
Washington Ideas Forum, in Washington October 29, 2014.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Q: Did you hesitate about letting them do those things?
A: I got worried once they actually left, but part of our world view is that
often, a lot of places other people perceive as dangerous are just filled with
normal people leading normal lives. Really, when my son first said he wanted to
tackle the seven summits, I started bitching about the cost, about $200,000, but
my kids can read the SEC documents — they knew how much money I was making.
Finally, I told him we'd fund the trip as long as he raised a comparable amount
for charity. Since then, the kids have all raised money for a cause as part of
the effort.
Q: How do you teach your children about business?
A: When my oldest child was 14, we put $20,000 in a brokerage account, something
we've done for all the kids since. I'm trying to use investing to help them
analyze current events, to look behind the headlines.
I'm trying to explain to them that business is largely about common sense, and
that when humans are involved, it's not always rational. It's usually helpful to
understand what pressures are weighing on the other guy.
Q: You've said you were fired from NRG for being too green. How do you fight
climate change now?
A: As a family, we support the local watershed, and my son who biked across
Africa raised money for Conservation International. But at NRG, we didn't make
big donations to environmental causes — I don't want anyone to look at a
donation and say that that's blood money, that's guilt.
Personally, I'd rather get involved with policy and take the problems head on.
The private sector needs to lead this fight, and the energy industry is ground
zero for both causing the problem and solving it.
(Editing by Lauren Young and Richard Chang)
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