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DEMCO Board Selects new CEO / General Manager -- 11.01.2006

Nationwide CEO search leads to ‘homegrown’ talent
  DEMCO’s  Board of Directors selected Jeff Kilpatrick, currently the General Manager and CEO of Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative (WSTE) serving the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain and based in Franklinton, La., as the new DEMCO chief executive officer, effective December 1, 2006.

          “I’m exceptionally proud that after a nation-wide search for the best and brightest from the electric cooperative utility industry across this nation that DEMCO’s board of directors discovered that the best talent available to take over the management of our consumer-owned utility was a ‘home-grown’ executive with unique experience,” DEMCO Board President Richard Sitman announced this week following interviews with the four finalists.

           Kilpatrick, who has served as the CEO of WST since April 2001, will be taking over the duties of veteran electric cooperative executive Henry D. Locklar who has been DEMCO’s chief executive officer over 22 years. Locklar has served with the DEMCO executive staff almost 35 years and came to the Baton Rouge based non-profit utility with extensive experience with cooperative utilities as an electrical engineer and administrator.

           “Henry Locklar has done a great job leading DEMCO and I have the highest regard for him.  He is leaving DEMCO in great shape with many positive aspects, but by far the greatest thing going are its low rates-some of the lowest in the region.  I, along with the board of directors and an outstanding group of employees, will continue to work hard to maintain these low rates and continue to provide safe and reliable electricity to the DEMCO members,” Kilpatrick said.  

          The DEMCO Board launched a national search for Locklar’s replacement after he announced his pending retirement earlier this year, retaining the services of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn. and management search consultant Tony Marinello. From over 70 applications from across the nation, 16 top applicants were reduced to four finalists who were interviewed in person by the DEMCO Directors at a special October board meeting.

          DEMCO is a non-profit, consumer-owned rural electric distribution cooperative that serves over 90,500 consumers along 8,800 miles of power line in Ascension, E. Baton Rouge, E. Feliciana, W. Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa parishes.
“All four of the finalists offered extensive experiences in the electric utility industry, but Mr. Kilpatrick had the unique ‘hands-on’ experience of overseeing the recovery of a utility distribution system devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Kilpatrick has also worked with Louisiana Generating, the wholesale power provider for the state’s electric distribution cooperatives, and is familiar with the workings of the Louisiana Public Service Commission,” Sitman observed.

           Kilpatrick, a 1976 Covington High School graduate and a 1981 LSU graduate, “came home” in 2001 after spending 19 highly productive years in management at Sam Houston Electric Cooperative in Livingston, Texas.

          “My wife is from the Baton Rouge area and I am a graduate of LSU.  It goes without saying that we are very excited about moving back into this area,” Kilpatrick said.

           Following Hurricane Katrina, WST and its 120 employees operated in full emergency mode for 11 weeks, establishing “tent cities” to house the 3,000 men and women from 27 states brought in to assist during the restoration effort. Of the 6,000 miles of transmission and distribution line serving nearly 50,000 consumers operated by WST, 4,500 miles were left on the ground when Hurricane Katrina destroyed a utility system that took 67 years to build. WST had to replace 4,000 miles of power line and over 12,000 power poles. Just as the work was 80 percent complete, Hurricane Rita arrived, causing 8,000 additional outages.

          WST suffered over $120 million in damage, but was able to recover 90 percent of its repair costs from FEMA while continuing to maintain the lowest electric rates in its service area.

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