Hodgen Mainda joined EPB in January as government relations and community development director just as the city-owned utility prepares to potentially play a key role in Tennessee's legislative debate in Nashville about how to expand high-speed internet service into rural communities that lack broadband connections.
EPB, which developed the first citywide, gigabit-per-second internet service in the Western hemisphere, is eager to bring its lightning-fast broadband to Bradley County and other neighboring rural areas that still lack any broadband service. But state law now limits municipal utilities such as EPB from expanding outside their power service territory.
Mainda, who came to Tennessee two decades ago from his native Kenya to study politics and play rugby in college, will likely need both his political training and competitive skills to convince lawmakers to remove such territorial limits against the wishes of major cable TV, telephone and other companies.
EPB's newest executive appears ready for the expected political battle. Mainda, whose father was a former financial advisor to Kenya's president, left his Nairobi, Kenya, in 1997 to play rugby at Middle Tennessee State University and studied political science. He has worked in government relations and business development jobs in Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga for a law firm, a physicians practice and, most recently, for Noon Development and River Branch Strategies in Chattanooga.
After moving to Chattanooga in 2008, Mainda met his future wife and decided to put down his roots and have a family in Tennessee rather than return to Kenya.
"I fell in love with this city and when Volkswagen announced it was coming here, that opened up a lot of opportunities and excitement and I decided to stay," Mainda says.
Mainda's wife now works at VW, and Mainda spent the past three and a half years working with developer John Foy on new projects in Mainda's adopted hometown. Mainda also met and previously worked with former Tennessee Deputy Gov. Claude Ramsey at a government relations consulting firm before joining EPB this year.
Mainda has quickly become a leader in Chattanooga, serving on the boards of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, WTCI, Memorial Hospital Foundation and The United Way of Greater Chattanooga. Gov. Bill Haslam also appointed Mainda to the board that oversees the Tennessee Education Lottery.
"EPB has a great impact in our community and the expansion of broadband like what EPB has started, I believe, is critical for the future economic growth, education and health care of our state," Mainda says. "It's a tremendous opportunity to be a part of an organization and issue that makes such a difference to so many people."