Toccoa Native Leading GEMC

A native of Toccoa is the new head of Georgia EMC.

Last week, the Board of Directors for Georgia EMC named Dennis L. Chastain as the association’s next president/CEO.

He will succeed A. Paul Wood effective on January 1, 2016.

The company says Chastain brings more than 28 years of experience to Georgia EMC, currently serving as senior vice president.

Chastain currently leads Georgia EMC’s Community and Economic Development and Training, Education and Safety programs.

A native of Toccoa who now lives in Dacula, Chastain holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia, is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Assoc. Management Internship Program at the University of Wisconsin and is a 1999 graduate of Leadership Georgia.

He began his electric cooperative career in 1987 when he joined Oglethorpe Power Corp.

During his tenure, he held various positions within the organization and served as director of Economic Development from 1996 to 2001 before moving to Georgia EMC in January 2002.

Chastain is a past president of the Georgia Economic Developers Assoc., past president of the National Rural Economic Developers Assoc., and was State chairman of the 2001 Red Carpet Tour sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

He currently serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Chastain succeeds Wood who has served as Georgia EMC’s President and CEO since 1997. Wood will continue to serve as an advisor and consultant to the Georgia EMC Executive Committee until his retirement on April 26, 2016.

Wood says that Chastain has a dedication to service to the EMCs of Georgia and to the state, adding that they are confident that he will build upon the great foundation that has been laid for the organization.

Georgia EMC is a statewide trade association representing the state’s 41 EMCs, Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp.

Collectively, Georgia’s customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to 4.4 million people, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area.