YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. — The Board of Directors of Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation (BRMEMC) announced in Tuesday night’s Board Meeting that Allan Glidewell has been selected as general manager. Glidewell brings more than twenty-three years of experience in the utility industry working primarily in electric cooperatives.
“Glidewells’s knowledge, experience, longevity and leadership within the electric cooperative caught the attention of our Board,” said Ray Cook, president of BRMEMC’s Board of Directors. “Our Board and legal counsel spent several weeks interviewing and vetting the candidates, and we feel we have an excellent choice as our general manager who will lead the Co-op successfully into the future. We look forward to having Mr. Glidewell as a part of the BRMEMC family. On behalf of the Board, we want to especially thank Interim General Manager Erik Brinke for his leadership during the search for our new general manager.”
Glidewell currently serves as branch manager for Fisher & Arnold, Inc.; a multi-discipline architecture and engineering firm in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is responsible for planting and growing the private organization’s venture into the Chattanooga and Birmingham markets.
During his tenure as vice president of operations and engineering at Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, he managed daily operations of the 50,000 meter co-op including safety, engineering, operations, information technology, maintenance and member services. He oversaw the deployment of a state-of-the-art AMI, outage management and SCADA system as well as the construction of a fiber network to connect co-op facilities, substations and commercial accounts. Glidewell accepted a couple of positions within the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) working as manager of applied line services and then as transmission system manager.
“I believe in service to others and electric cooperatives present unique opportunities to serve. Electric cooperatives were built on the idea of service, and they function best when service is at the heart of each decision, action and policy. Employees and the members they serve are a co-op’s greatest asset,” said Incoming General Manager Glidewell. “An electric cooperative has to be flexible and nimble; ensuring that we meet folks where their needs are. This includes both employees and members. We’re in an industry that is essential and ever changing, but we can’t forget about service to one another.”
Glidewell grew up in west Tennessee. He holds a bachelor of science in engineering from the University of Tennessee and a master of business administration degree from Union University. He is a widower and the father of three grown children with his first grandchild on the way. Glidewell also enjoys playing bluegrass music.
Glidewell will begin as general manager Monday, March 22. “I offer my sincere gratitude to the Board of Directors for the opportunity to serve Blue Ridge Mountain EMC as the next general manager,” said Glidewell.
About Blue Ridge Mountain EMC
Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned electric cooperative headquartered in Young Harris, Georgia, serving nearly 47,000 members in Cherokee and Clay Counties in Western North Carolina, and Towns, Union and Fannin Counties in Northeast Georgia. Organized locally in 1937, BRMEMC has invested well over $280 million in physical infrastructure in its mission to provide reliable electric and broadband services to its members where those services would not otherwise have been available. Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. ###