FRI has selected Stan Wise as recipient of the 2024 Crystal Award for Distinguished Service.

Stan Wise was elected statewide four consecutive times, to serve on the Public Service Commission from January 1995 through February 2018. His first elected public office was as a Cobb County Commissioner in 1990. He previously served the county as a member of the Cobb County Planning Commission and also on the Board of Zoning Appeals. Wise was a Board Member of the ten-county Atlanta Regional Commission from 1992 through 1994.

Stan served on the National Petroleum Council for the 2016-2017 term following his appointment by U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. In 2003 and 2004 his regulatory peers elected him as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), furthering his responsibilities and interaction with Congress, federal agencies, state officials, industry leaders, Wall Street, consumer groups and the news media. Stan has testified multiple times before Congress. He was chairman of the Gas Committee of NARUC and also served on the International Relations Committee. Wise is twice a past President of the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (SEARUC). He was also on the Advisory Council for the New Mexico State University Center for Public Utilities. Stan serves on the Friends of the Strand Board of Directors. He was a member of the Action Ministries Board of Directors, a faith-based charity, until he retired due to term limits.

His alma mater, Charleston Southern University where in 1974 he earned a B.S. in Business Management, named Wise the Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 2006. In addition, he was named the Bonbright Center of the Terry College of Business Honoree of the Year in 2005.

Stan served on the U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Advisory Board, the Cobb County Public Schools Educational Foundation, Inc., the Board of Directors of the Cobb YMCA, the Boys Club of Cobb County and the Advisory Board of the North Georgia Law Enforcement Academy. He owned and operated an insurance business in Cobb County for twenty years. He also served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve for six years.

The FRI Crystal Award was created to recognize an individual who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the design, implementation or analysis of public utility regulatory policy. The award is presented annually during the FRI Public Utility Symposium.