Board of Trustees announces new CEO
The Board of Trustees of South Central Power Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Lemonds to chief executive officer effective early February 2012.
South Central’s CEO, Ralph Luffler, will retire after 34 years with the company. “Serving as CEO since 1998, Ralph has been an outstanding leader for South Central Power, and has been dedicated to the mission of providing members with reliable electric service at a reasonable cost,” said Board of Trustees Chairman Ken Davis of Leesburg, Ohio.
“Ralph has also represented our members well as an officer of Buckeye Power, the power supplier for all Ohio electric cooperatives. Our members, employees, and board have been well served by Ralph during his entire tenure at South Central, and we wish him many happy years of retirement,” Davis added.
The Board of Trustees engaged in a national search to identify and recruit Lemonds. His demonstrated leadership of electric cooperatives and his credentials position him to continue South Central Power’s success.
“We are very pleased to welcome Rick into the South Central family,” said Davis. “We believe his record of steady, thoughtful leadership, and extensive knowledge and experience in the cooperative power industry will be a great asset for the future of South Central and its members.”
Lemonds is a proven leader with more than 24 years of rural electric cooperative experience. Since April 2002, he has served as CEO of Lake Country Power, a rural electric cooperative serving 49,000 consumers in northern Minnesota.
Before his time with Lake Country Power, Lemonds was general manager at Lyon-Lincoln Electric Cooperative in Tyler, Minnesota. Prior to that, he spent ten years with the federal government’s Rural Utilities Service as a field representative and loan and finance specialist. He worked with both generation and transmission, and distribution cooperatives.
Lemonds has served on several statewide and power supply committees covering issues ranging from service territory to demand response programs to power supply and transmission service rates and contracts. For the past 15 years, Lemonds has been active in creating jobs in rural areas. He has served on the board of the Itasca Economic Development Corporation since 2005.
Lemonds holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Bemidji State University, Bemidji, Minnesota. He and his wife, Wendy, have three boys. Ian is 14 and twins Max and Jake are 13. Lemonds hobbies include golf, hunting, fishing, reading and puzzles.
“I am honored that the Board of Trustees has placed its trust and faith in me to lead South Central Power into the future,” Lemonds stated. “I look forward to working with the members, employees, and communities as we build upon South Central Power’s long history of member service and affordable rates.”
Lemonds, along with his family, will soon relocate to South Central’s service territory from Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
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