William B. "Bill" Kilbride, the former Mohawk Industries executive who headed the Chattanooga Are Chamber of Commerce for three years after retiring from the carpet industry, has been nominated to serve on the board of directors for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
President Donald Trump picked the retired Chattanooga business executive to fill the last vacancy on the 9-member TVA board. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the 68-year-old Kilbride will be the fifth Tennessean on the presidential-appointed board that oversees America's biggest government utility. He will succeed Eric Martin Satz on the TVA board and his term will last through 2023.
Bill KilbrideU.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who serves on one of the Senate panels that helps oversee TVA and backed Kilbride for the post, praised Kilbride as "a successful businessman and community leader" who helped lead the Chattanooga Chamber to receive the 2017 Chamber of the Year award among chambers across the country.
"He understands that TVA's mission is to continue to provide cheap, clean and reliable electricity throughout the Tennessee Valley, and I know his strategic leadership will be a valuable asset to the TVA board," Alexander said of Kilbride.
Kilbride's appointment comes just a week after the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Trump's last appointment to the TVA board, Memphis attorney John Ryder, who will join the TVA board for their next quarterly board meeting in Franklin, Tennessee in May.
TVA's part-time directors are paid $51,005 a year and serve 5-year terms to oversee the operations of the federal utility, which is America's biggest government-owned utility with annual revenues of more than $10 billion.
Kilbride is the only Chattanoogan on the TVA board. The last Chattanooga TVA director was Dr. Barbara Haskew, a former TVA manager and economics professor at Middle Tennessee State University who was appointed by President Obama and served on the TVA board from 2009 to 2014.
Prior to coming to Chattanooga and transitioning into the carpet industry, Kilbride worked in financial services in New York for 20 years where he held positions in banking operations with several national banks and roles at the New York Stock Exchange. He also served as first vice president of planning for Dean Witter Financial Services.
He joined Mohawk in 1993 when it acquired American Rug Craftsmen, which he was president of at the time, and he became president of the Chattanooga Chamber in 2014 before retiring last year.
Kilbride has also been an active civic leader in Chattanooga as a member of The Bright School Board of Trustees, a gubernatorial appointee to chair the Tennessee Arts Commission, past chairman of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chancellor's Advisory Board, past chairman of Tennessee Wesleyan College, and a past member of the board of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority. He has also served as a trustee of the Hunter Museum and of First Centenary United Methodist Church in Chattanooga.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.