Sansom reappointed as TVA director

Former Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman Bill Sansom will serve another five-year term as a TVA director.

The Knoxville Republican businessman was nominated Friday by the Obama administration to serve a second term on the nine-member TVA board. Mr. Sansom, chairman and chief executive officer of the H.T. Hackney Co. in Knoxville, has served on the TVA board since it was revamped and expanded in March 2006. His term was to have expired at the end of the year.

Mr. Sansom is the third nominee from the White House this year to fill vacancies on the TVA board. Democrats Barbara Haskew, an economics professor at Middle Tennessee State University, and Neil G. McBride, an Oak Ridge lawyer, were nominated by the White House in September.

The nominees must still be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Tennessee’s U.S. senators praised Mr. Sansom and the White House for making appointments to the board from supporters of both political parties.

“In renominating Bill Sansom, President Obama has made an excellent choice that will provide leadership and continuity for TVA,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who as Tennessee governor in the 1980s employed Mr. Sansom in his cabinet.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said Mr. Sansom “has been a stalwart member” of the TVA board “at a critical time” and helped in the transition from the former 3-member full-time board to the current nine-member, part-time board.

“Bill brings a valuable business perspective — not politics — to the board, which I believe is exactly what was envisioned when the board structure was modernized and professionalized several years ago,” Sen. Corker said.