Lankford, Turk Join TEC Board

Forty-seven official voting delegates submitted ballots by mail in the weeks leading up to the 80th TEC Annual Meeting—its first presented in a digital format. The delegates elected Kelly Lankford, executive vice president and CEO of Concho Valley EC, representing Group 4, and Doug Turk, general manager and CEO of Sam Houston EC, Group 1, to the statewide association’s board of directors.

The new board selected Bob Loth III, CEO of Central Texas EC, as its new chair. Loth replaces Alan Lesley, whose three-year term ended in August. Gary Raybon, general manager and CEO of Wharton County EC, was chosen as vice chair, and Lankford is secretary-treasurer.

In his outgoing report to the membership, Lesley thanked the employees and directors of CECA for allowing him to serve as board member, an experience he described as invaluable.

Lesley emphasized the continuity that electric cooperatives provide as community-minded institutions, particularly in a year striated by a viral pandemic, contracting economy and urgent calls for racial equity. “It’s in these times that people look for leadership and stability,” he said. “They find comfort in the familiar—something solid and honest [in] which they can place their trust.”

Lesley also acknowledged the power of small gestures—those of co-ops that have inspired members’ trust for generations, along with the things everyone can do to make the world a bit better.

“It’s the little things we do,” he said. “They add up.”