Honoris Causa – Doctor of Civil Law

Durham Cathedral, 3rd July 2003

‘μεταθεμένων τε τών χρωμένων’; ‘radix malorum est cupiditas’; ‘ecco colei che tutto il mondo apuzza’. The first of these fragments is from Aristotle, in the Politics – part of a discussion of the importance of sound money: in effect,
don’t try to make a profit by fiddling the finances. The second is from the medieval English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer – the moral of his Pardoner’s Tale, ‘the root of evil is greed’. The third is from the Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri: ‘behold the one who makes the whole world stink’. It describes the monster who presides over usurers – those preoccupied with making money breed money, whom Dante places in a deep circle of Hell, way below punishments for those kinds of sin that preoccupy the popular Sunday papers. These fragments indicate the traditional view of the Church, which accorded with the wisdom of the ancient world. This is the voice of the ages. But now hear a voice of this age – Gordon Gecko in the film Wall Street. ‘The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed – for lack of a better word – is good. Greed is right. Greed works.’ The fictional Gecko may be compared to the non-fictional speculator Ivan Boesky, who said in a 1985 speech at Berkeley, ‘Greed is all right …. I want you to know that. Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and feel good about yourself.’ And finally hear Sir Nicholas Scheele, reflecting recently on these issues in the light of contemporary corporate scandals at Enron and Worldcom: ‘I want to say once and for all, greed is not good. It hurts corporations. It hurts shareholders. It hurts each and every one of us. A strong sense of ethics is crucial to being a good [business] leader’. In a variety of ways that strong sense of ethics in business marks the work of Sir Nicholas – in the motor manufacturing industry; in society more widely; and most recently at the University of Warwick, of which he is Chancellor.

After graduating from Durham University (St Cuthbert’s Society) in 1966 with a degree in Modern Languages, young Nick, then twenty-two, began work in procurement with Ford in Britain. In the late 1970s he transferred to similar work with Ford USA, and there rose through the corporation as director of various departments until, in 1988, he became President of Ford of Mexico. He came back to Britain in 1992 to become, first Vice-Chairman and, within a few months, Chairman and Chief Executive of Jaguar. Evidently Sir Nicholas’s career had been very distinguished up to this point, but at Jaguar he had particularly notable success. In effect he turned round a company that was in danger of going to the wall, and thereby saved several thousand jobs, with all that that implies for the community of the Midland region and beyond. How did he do it? It is perhaps relevant that one of Sir Nicholas’s favourite fictional characters is C. S. Forester’s Hornblower – a man who aims to lead by inspiring loyalty rather than imposing discipline. It was in part as a result of his work at Jaguar that, in 2001, for services to British exports, he was made a knight commander of the order of St Michael and St George, an order whose motto – ‘auspicium melioris aevi’ – is to be taken in a future sense: token of a better age to come. Sir Nicholas had by this time become Chairman of Ford Europe, and in 2001 he moved back to the USA to become first Vice-President of Ford North America, and subsequently President and Chief Operating Officer. As such he plays a leading role in a major global corporation. With transport policy and the environment such important current political issues, it is of great consequence that Sir Nicholas aims not only to make a financial success of his corporation, but to do so with ethical issues in view. In projecting a future at Ford of part-electronic clean-air vehicles he is considering the impact of road transport on the global environment. By working in alliance with Oxfam on a global fair trade project initiated by the DTI he is considering the impact of global corporations on the world economy.

Alongside his industrial work Sir Nicholas has been consistently involved incharitable activities. He has worked on committees concerned with community relations, with industrial regeneration, and particularly with groups concerned with children’s welfare: he was made a life member of the National Society for the Protection and Care of Children after chairing the society’s centenary appeal to raise money for a child care centre in Coventry. The Prince of
Wales Business and Environment Committee; the manufacturing group of the government programme to foster links between industry, science and government, Foresight 2020: in chairing committees of this kind Sir Nicholas
makes his knowledge and experience in industry available to society at large.

As Chancellor of Warwick University – a university which, appropriately, has a large Business School notable for its work in business ethics – he stresses (as we do here at Durham) both the importance of a university’s international
engagements and its involvement with its local community. In his installation speech as Chancellor Sir Nicholas committed himself to work for greater funding of education by industry. Naturally the University of Durham wishes
Sir Nicholas success in all his activities – in procuring such increased funding of education no less than the others.

Mr Chancellor, I present Nicholas Vernon Scheele, Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, to receive the degree of Doctor of Civil Law honoris causa.