John L. RyderNearly 13 months after he was first nominated by President Trump, Memphis attorney John Ryder was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Thursday as the newest member of the TVA board.
Ryder, a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee and partner in the Memphis law firm of Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh, will assume the seat vacated nearly two years ago by Mike McWherter, a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Tennessee.
Ryder’s term runs through 2021 on the 9-member TVA board, which currently has only seven members. Trump has yet to nominate a candidate to fill the other vacant seat on the TVA board.
Ryder’s first public meeting with the full TVA board will be on May 9 when the TVA governing board meets in Franklin, Tennessee.
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Senate energy and public works subcommittee that oversees TVA, praised Ryder as “a respected leader in Shelby County and in our state.