"The elimination of lead from gas is one of the great environmental achievements of all time." Carol Browner, EPA Takes Final Step in Phaseout of Leaded Gasoline EPA press release - January 29, 1996
Former leaded gasoline manufacturer Ethyl Corp.'s chairman Bruce Gottwald "believes the Institute's mission of transforming young men and women into tomorrow's leaders is more important today than ever. " -- VMI press release, Nov. 19, 200422. Welcoming the VMI Center for Ethics and Leadership
Once upon a time, a very clever inventor from Ohio discovered that a simple additive could enhance the value of an everyday item – maybe it was milk, or cloth, or lumber, or gasoline.
The additive had one rather unfortunate drawback – it made everyone who came near it sick, and it killed a few of the workers who made it. But it was so profitable that the clever inventor decided he would go ahead and put the additive on the market anyway.
Was that ethical?
Scientists were worried. They said there were alternatives and the clever inventor knew about them. But the alternatives were nowhere near as profitable as the additive.
So the clever inventor and his growing company told the government that the additive had come like a gift of God to civilization. There were no alternatives, they said (even though they had patented more than a dozen of them). Besides, if there were ever any problems, they promised to take the additive off the market.
Was that ethical?
Soon the additive succeeded beyond all hope. The inventor was rich and his company was powerful. The additive took over the market and everyone had to use it every day. But some scientists were still worried, so the company created an information machine that ginned up favorable studies and financed adoring histories of the clever inventor.
Was that ethical?
A few decades later, the inventor died and the company moved to Virginia. Eventually federal government did its own studies of the additive. They found that it was making everyone sick and killing thousands of people each year. So the government decided to ban it. But the company fought the ban in federal courts and said it was an example of bad government regulation. When the company lost the fight, it told stockholders it hoped to make up its lost profits with new markets in countries without so many regulations.
Was that ethical?
When those foreign countries finally began to listen to world health organizations, and also took up the ban, the company continued to take its additive down market, to countries with even fewer regulations.
Was that ethical?
The company had received a lot of bad press over the years, so it decided to change its name to someting less controversial. Something associated with the CEO's old Alma Mater. So it changed its name from Ethyl to New Market.
With all the money they made selling the poisonous additive, the company’s chairman decided to endow a center for ethics and leadership at a Virginia taxpayer-supported college. Now the chairman and the company with the new name will be remembered for helping to prepare our country's new leaders for the ethical challenges of the future.
If their behavior is anything at all like the company that endowed their center for ethics and leadership, how ethical will they be?