20 Years of WRISE: Founder Karen Conover on Lessons from the Frontlines

Catherine: Hi, I’m Catherine McLean, Founder and CEO of Dylan Green. And today I have with me Karen Conover, a board director at REpowering Schools and former wind energy VP at DNV. And Karen is joining us from Seattle. Thanks for doing this today.

Karen: No problem. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Catherine: Although you’ve now retired, you’re still very active in the clean energy community, including your work with REpowering Schools. What draws you to stay engaged in the industry?

Karen: Well, I’ve worked in this industry for almost 40 years. So while it was certainly a job, it’s also been a passion. I believe that transitioning to a clean energy economy is one of the most important things that we can do in this world. And as such, I want to stay involved and continue to support achieving that goal. Since I’ve tried to stay engaged and support the industry in a variety of ways. I do some strategic consulting. I still work as a mentor in a global program focusing mostly on women that are in mid-career in their life. And then I serve on boards like REpowering Schools.

Catherine: Yeah. You founded Global Energy Concepts at a pivotal time for wind energy. What inspired you to launch the company? And what lessons did you take from those early years of building it?

Karen: Well, I was interested in renewables from an early age. I have this very strong memory of going with my father to an environmental fair in like fourth grade and thinking this was really cool. So I always knew what I wanted to do. After grad school, I got a job working in a consulting field, in the consulting field in renewables, which was great. But when that company started to flounder after I’d been there for a few years, I was sort of at a crossroads. So starting a company gave me a chance to follow my passion. I was young, I was 29. So I didn’t have a whole lot to lose at that point and much more willing to take risks than I might’ve been later in my career. But I still had a little bit of experience behind me and I had developed some relationships with clients that had work they wanted me to do. So I was pretty sure that I could get started and kick things off at least.

Catherine: Yeah. And after GEC’s acquisition by DNV, which must be something you’re incredibly proud of, you had front row seats to the industry’s evolution. What have been some of the most striking shifts that you’ve seen in wind in the broader renewable space?

Karen: Before we get to that, I want to just go back and add something to your previous question, if that’s okay.

Catherine: Yeah, absolutely.

Karen: You also asked about what lessons I learned in the early years. And I think that one of the earliest and most important lessons that I learned in the early years is that there are opportunities that exist in all kinds of places and they aren’t necessarily just tied to what was happening in the U.S. energy market. For us in the early years, in the early 90s, for example, we did more than 75% of our work in the international markets because the U.S. market was slow. We also switched when developments were not happening or paused, we switched to supporting some turbine manufacturers on new technology developments or government contracts. We invested in software to help some of the prospecting that was going on for wind resource assessment.
So I think that the most important early lesson was resilience, flexibility and diversity. That’s really served us quite well, as well as a really strong belief that the clean energy economy was essential and we really wanted to make sure that happened and be a part of making that happen.
I think some of the most striking shifts that we’ve seen during my career in the wind industry have been associated with the technology advances, performance, reliability, rotor sizes, tower heights, advanced controls, blade material, all these things that come together and have driven down the cost of energy. So the cost of energy today is just a fraction of what it had been before. And renewables are an economic choice, not an environmental one at this point. This is why the whole conversation about bringing back coal doesn’t make any sense at all. Renewables just make a lot more sense on an economic basis. So that’s the biggest change that I think that we’ve seen during this time of my career.

Catherine: Take us back to the founding of WRISE. What inspired you and the team to create it? And what do you remember most about those first few years?

Karen: Well, I was asked to join the steering committee, but I didn’t come up with the original idea. I had to give others credit for that. But I did have the same experience that they were trying to address. It wasn’t uncommon to be the only woman in the room, the only woman on the podium, the only woman in a project team that was trying to get something done. And I think what I strongly remember in those early careers is this sense, because I was an engineer, I was sort of used to this. I was often the only woman in the room, even early in my college years. But this sense that WRISE gave me didn’t have to be that way. And it would be so much better if it wasn’t. And all the things that came with that, whether that was the benefit of diverse voices, different perspectives, or whether that was just the comfort of having other role models or other women that were sitting around the room in the same way that I was.

Catherine: Right, right. Looking at how WRISE has grown over the past two decades, what are you most proud of? Like, are there any particular programs or partnerships or milestones that stand out to you?

Karen: Yeah, there are many. I think at the end of the day, I’m most proud of the impact that it’s had and the way that those benefits have manifested itself in the companies that are working with in our industry today. I used to sit on the board of the American Wind Energy Association, which is now ACP, American Wind Power. And for WRISE, I was doing a lot of fundraising.
So it was not uncommon to go into the room and have to kind of strong arm some of these folks that were there to support WRISE. And they did. They did. But they did so a little bit because of this twisting their arms and because they didn’t want to be seen as not supporting women. But it didn’t take very long for those same people to see the benefits that supporting the women in their companies gave them, how much it helped their bottom line, how much it helped their teams perform better, all those different things. And seeing that evolution was really powerful for me. It was people that really weren’t on board at the beginning, willing to do it because they either knew me or because, like I said, they didn’t want to be seen as not supporting women. One of the milestones I remember that I think was particularly significant was when we decided to offer companies that were sponsoring WRISE the opportunity to enroll all of the women in their company as individual members. And that was such a win-win because they got a benefit that they could add to their employee benefit package. We’ll give you this free membership to WRISE. We got thousands of new members to participate in all of our programs. But it also spurred a whole lot of other things internally within some of these companies. You know, around that time, you started to see tons of new organizations internal to a company, a women’s book club, a leadership program, all kinds of other different types of things that were happening because the companies were recognizing that this was a value. And I like to think that WRISE really spurred that within many of the companies in the industry.

Catherine: I love that. That’s such a great story. As a woman leader in clean energy, what are some of the key challenges you’ve faced along the way and how do you navigate them?

Karen: Well, I think when you’re the only woman in the room, you often have to establish credibility over and over again. There are assumptions that get made about your role, about your capabilities, about your interests, and it shouldn’t be necessary. And it’s exhausting to do that again and again and again, every time you introduce yourself to a new group of people. And sometimes it’s the subtle things that get to you. You know, it’s a little bit of a surprise when you hand someone your business card that says CEO, that you are a CEO. Or it’s the number of times that I think every board I’ve sat on, I’ve been asked to join the executive committee, and the first thing I’d offer is the secretary position. It’s so silly, but it has happened over and over again. Yes, we see that you have leadership potential, and yes, we want to slot you into this role. So I think that those kind of things are big challenges. But as far as navigating them, first of all, humor goes a long way. Very few people are operating with bad intentions. I think it helps to start there. I also think it’s important to just always be looking for what opportunities and advantages that you have. Yes, there are definitely barriers, but if you’re the only woman in the room, people remember you often, times more than they do the CEO of other men in gray suits. Can you use that to your advantage in any way? And I don’t know. Also, I don’t come into conversations with a lot of machismo. I’m always prepared. I’m always curious, which I think is the key to getting people to talk to you and patience. So I think that you navigate barriers by just slowly chipping away at them and doing what you can.

Catherine: A good point. Yes, a very good point. You’ve worked across multiple sectors and markets. What trends or innovations in clean energy excite you the most right now? Are there any global lessons that could benefit the U.S. industry?

Karen: Well, it’s a tough time for the renewable energy industry right now at this moment in time. But in terms of the global industry and what we can learn from that, one of the things that the U.S. suffers from in particular is short-term energy policy. Our energy policy is very tied to our election cycle, which is just a few years at a time. And I think that in other countries, a long-term energy policy, long-term stable energy policy is extremely beneficial and something that we should pay more attention to in this country. It’s really difficult to get people to make an investment here, whether that’s in building a project or setting up a manufacturing facility if you don’t know whether the policy is going to exist two years from now when we have another election cycle. So I think that’s an important lesson globally that we can learn from. And I’m not so optimistic that that will happen, but it is certainly something to strive for.

Catherine: For emerging leaders, especially women and people of color, what advice would you offer for advancing in this space? And how can allies better support?

Karen: Well, I think first of all, you have to operate in a way that is consistent with your values. You know, you can’t always get things right, but you can always operate with integrity and with respect for others. And when you make mistakes consider those a learning opportunity and move on if failures are just kind of part of the process, not something to dwell on. Particularly for women and people of color, I would say my advice would be that it’s not necessary to try to assimilate different voices, different perspectives. They’re valuable and they make us all better. I think women also need to hear that they are more capable than they probably think they are and that going forth with confidence and courage is important and always to think about what you have to offer, because I think women tend to suffer a little bit more from an imposter syndrome than their male counterpoints do. And then I guess maybe another piece of advice, I would say, surround yourself with good people. You talked about allies. I think it is important to build your support system early and often and continually. That people that could be just people you trust to have conversations with, mentors, sponsors, obviously, but brushing up on your networking skills and thinking that you are always, always, always connecting with people that may be able to support you at some point later in life, being open to that and asking for help and accepting it when it’s on offer. I think so often we feel we have to go it alone and prove ourselves. So, looking for those support systems, which WRISE provides, and taking advantage of them, letting yourself take advantage of them is some advice I would give.

Catherine: Someone said it to me the other day. They said, oh yeah, that person is on my personal board of directors.

Karen: I really love that.

Catherine: I was like, that’s so interesting. Because I feel like I never thought about it like that, but I have a lot of different women that I look to for friendship, but also who are in our industry. So, they’re my personal board of directors right now.

Karen: One of my favorite questions to ask at the cocktail party or the hallway conversation is, what advice would you give to me in any way? What advice would you give me on this project? What advice would you give to me in my career? What advice would you give me today? What advice would you give me for lunch? Whatever it is, and just soak in all the information that you can from everyone. Everybody has something to offer.

Catherine: Yeah, they really do. I always think about that question. What advice would you give to your younger self? So, as WRISE celebrates 20 years, what do you hope the next few decades will bring for both WRISE and for the clean energy workforce more broadly? What actions do you think will help us get there?

Karen: Well, I think WRISE is doing everything right. The next 20 years, I’d like to see them be bigger and broader. There’s a lot of good stats about women. More women are graduating from college. Women make more of the purchasing decisions in families. Women support environmental and climate change action in higher numbers. So, we need these women to be part of the renewable energy industry. As we bring more and more women into the industry, WRISE helps us recruit them. WRISE helps us keep them employed, and WRISE helps to support and advance them in their choosing careers. So, we need to do more of that as we have more people. That may be more geographic locations. That may be more programs. That may be the ability to specialize in different segments of the industry. What they’re doing is great, but there’s going to be increasing need as we continue to go forward. So, staying the course and continuing to expand, I think, is the most important thing that we can do in the next 20 years.

Catherine: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, and I will see you in a couple weeks, I guess, in person.

Karen: Great.