When Warren Logan was appointed to Chattanooga's Electric Power Board in August 2000, the city-owned utility was strictly an electricity provider headquartered in an aging office at Sixth and Market streets.
Over the 19 years Logan has served on its board, EPB has expanded its mission, facilities and debt. In the process, EPB has created America's first Gig city for high-speed broadband and propelled the start of Chattanooga's Innovation District with pioneering research done at EPB by the nation's biggest energy lab.
In July, Logan was elected chair of EPB to replace retiring Joe Ferguson, who has headed the 5-member board that oversees EPB since 2000. Logan, a 69-year-old Chattanooga native, is determined that EPB continue to progress, even after the utility has been ranked as the best mid-sized electric utility in the South by J.D. Power consumer surveys for four consecutive years.
"I think we have only uncovered the tip of the iceberg of innovation in terms of what we have the capability of doing at EPB," Logan says. "With the collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Labs and others, there's no telling what we can do in the future."
Logan, whose full-time job is CEO of the Chattanooga chapter of the Urban League League of Greater Chattanooga, has spent a career working to upgrade public service. As head of the local Urban League for nearly 25 years, Logan helped turn around the local chapter's finances and programs and expanded the reach of the non-profit to serve about 14,000 people.
"When I took this job, we were probably working with about 300 clients a year and we owed everybody in America and six foreign countries, so it involved a lot of rebuilding," Logan recalls.
The Chattanooga Urban League was given exemplary ratings by the state of Tennessee for its workforce development and has earned the highest performance ratings from the National Urban League.
Prior to being recruited to the Urban League in 1995, Logan worked at the Tennessee Valley Authority, which supplies the elecricity which EPB delivers to more than 160,000 customers in the Chattanooga area. Logan was a manager in TVA's energy conservation programs.
A graduate of Tennessee State University, he previously was executive director of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise and the statewide Business Development Centers.
Warren and his wife, Linda, have two adult daughters.