TVA Board Nominees Confirmed by Senate

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed four nominees for the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors. They are:

• Marilyn A. Brown, a professor of energy policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Public Policy, who was nominated Dec. 10, 2009, by President  Obama for a term expiring May 18, 2012, to succeed Susan Richardson Williams, whose term expired.
• Barbara S. Haskew, a professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University, nominated Sept. 10, 2009, by the president for a term expiring May 18, 2014, to succeed Donald R. DePriest, who resigned.
• Neil G. McBride, a long-time public-interest lawyer. He was nominated Sept. 10, 2009, by the president for a term expiring May 18, 2013, to succeed Skila Harris, who resigned.
• Bill Sansom, a former chairman of the TVA Board, who was nominated Dec. 4, 2009, by the president for a second term expiring May 18, 2014. Sansom is president and chief executive officer of Knoxville-based H.T. Hackney Co.

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"We look forward to having the expertise and counsel of these additional board members as TVA prepares for the future," TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said.

Current members of the TVA Board of Directors are Chairman Dennis Bottorff of Nashville, Tenn.; Mike Duncan of Inez, Ky.; Tom Gilliland, of Blairsville, Ga.; William Graves of Memphis, Tenn., and Howard Thrailkill of Huntsville, Ala.

Information on Haskew

In addition to being a distinguished professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University, Barbara Haskew has served MTSU in leadership positions for more than 20 years, including dean of the College of Business and vice president and provost of the university.

Haskew's interest in and research about utility and energy issues was reinforced by her eight years as manager of the Rate staff for TVA earlier in her career. As manager of TVA's Rate staff, she led the development of wholesale and retail rates designed to meet TVA's goals.

Haskew earned a doctorate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with emphases in development and labor economics.

Information on McBride

Neil McBride lives and works in East Tennessee. He is general counsel with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, a nonprofit law firm that provides legal services in civil cases.

After beginning his legal career as a public-interest advocate in Washington, D.C., McBride moved to East Tennessee in 1973. He is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association's policy-making body, the House of Delegates and a member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, the Association's primary voice on how the law serves low-income Americans.

McBride is an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he teaches a course on nonprofit corporations. He is a graduate of Hamilton College and of the University of Virginia School of Law.

Information on Bill Sansom

Sansom is the chairman and chief executive officer of the H.T. Hackney Co. and has held that position since 1983. Hackney is a diversified company involved in wholesale grocery, gas and oil and furniture manufacturing.

He served as Tennessee commissioner of transportation in 1979. He attended high school in Knoxville and received a civil engineering degree from The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.  He is former president of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce and former Chair of the TVA Board of Directors. His term on the TVA Board expired May 18, 2009.

Information on Marilyn Brown

In August 2006, Marilyn Brown joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as a Professor in the School of Public Policy. She also worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she held various leadership positions managing annual research budgets of $50 million to $130 million, focused on energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric grid and energy engineering projects. While at Oak Ridge, she was also an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee.

She has edited one book and two special journal issues, and she has authored more than 200 publications.

Brown co-founded and chaired the board of directors of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance for several years. She also served on the boards of directors of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance to Save Energy and was a member of the National Commission on Energy Policy for many years.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation owned by the U.S. government, provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia – an area of 80,000 square miles with a population of 9 million. TVA operates 29 hydroelectric dams, 11 coal-fired power plants, three nuclear plants and 11 natural gas-fired power facilities and supplies up to 33,700 megawatts of electricity, delivered over 16,000 miles of high-voltage power lines. TVA also provides flood control, navigation, land management and recreation for the Tennessee River system and works with local utilities and state and local governments to promote economic development across the region. TVA, which makes no profits and receives no taxpayer money, is funded by sales of electricity to its customers. Electricity prices in TVA's service territory are below the national average

SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority