TVA CEO Tom Kilgore, left, talks about new CEO William “Bill” D. Johnson on Monday at TVA in Knoxville.Bill Johnson, the tall, incoming president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, walked through the halls of the Knoxville and Chattanooga headquarters buildings Monday to meet employees and shake hands.
Just hours earlier, as he was introduced via streaming video from the Knoxville TVA auditorium, he told listeners that his values as a utility leader are simple.
“People are important. How we treat customers, how we treat employees, how we treat each other really matters,” he said. “How we conduct our business matters, and how we spend money. Thirdly, safety matters. And integrity is important — perhaps the most important.”
Johnson — the controversial former chairman, president and CEO of Progress Energy who helped orchestrate the merger of two large electrical utilities, Progress and Duke Energy, only to be ousted as its new CEO after one day — will replace TVA’s retiring Tom Kilgore, beginning Jan. 1. Kilgore headed TVA for six years.
The federal utility generates enough electricity for 9 million people, which it sells to 155 distributors and 57 directly served industries and federal facilities in seven states.