Harold DePriest retiring from EPB

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – The Electric Power Board morphed from an electrical utility for Chattanooga into the driver for the city’s business growth under his watch.

Now EPB President and CEO Harold DePriest is stepping down.

He has informed the board that his retirement will take effect on September 1st.

According to EPB Board Chairman Joe Ferguson, DePriest was a key player for both EPB and Chattanooga at large. “When Harold became president and CEO in 1996, he transformed the culture at EPB to reflect an organization committed to delivering exceptional customer service,” Ferguson said. “Under Harold’s leadership EPB grew from a conventional utility serving a community striving to better itself into a national model for fiber optic and smart grid services serving America’s First Gig City.”

DePriest joined EPB back in 1971 as a junior engineer.

“I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to grow and work with the best team in the utility business and a visionary Board of Directors that encourages us to be an outstanding organization,” DePriest said. “Early in my career, our community leaders committed to the vision of striving to make Chattanooga the best mid-sized city in America. That aspirational goal along with EPB’s longstanding mission of enhancing the quality of life of the people we serve have driven us to push the boundaries of what it means to be an electric utility. It’s been an honor to partner with community leaders and stakeholders in the cooperative effort to make the Chattanooga area even better.”

You can read more on his career here.