Duane Highley, president and chief executive officer for Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp., is leaving the power company to become CEO of Tri-State Generation and Transmission, a wholesale power supplier in Colorado.
Highley, who led AECC and the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. for more than seven years, will start in his new post in Westminster, Colorado, in April. No decision has been made yet on a successor, Highley told Arkansas Business.
“The AECC and AECI Board of Directors has not made a decision regarding interim CEO, regular CEO or outside search,” Highley said in an email, “but I expect an announcement in that regard within the next week or so.” He also said he had not locked down a final day of work in Arkansas. “I will serve as the board wishes. However, I will assume official duties as CEO at Tri-State on April 5.”
Before his 2011 hiring at AECC, which provides power to more than 500,000 members of Arkansas’ 17 electric distribution cooperatives, Highley spent 17 years as director of power production at Associated Electric Cooperative in Springfield, Missouri.
Highley will succeed Mike McInnes, who is retiring after nearly two decades at Tri-State, a not-for-profit wholesale electricity association much like AECC.
“As CEO, Duane will work with our board of directors to advance a strong vision for the association’s future,” Rick Gordon, chairman and president of Tri-State, said in a news release on the group’s website. “Duane is a proven CEO adept at leading complex cooperative organizations. He has spent the past 35 years working with two financially strong cooperatives and demonstrates leadership collaborating with members, key stakeholders and public officials.”
Highley will start work on April 5, succeeding Mike McInnes, who is retiring after working for Tri-State since 2000. As CEO of AECC, which had $796 million in revenue in the year ended Oct. 31, 2017; Highley’s 2017 calendar year salary was $864,382. No salary information for 2018 is yet available.
“I’m grateful to the [Tri-State] board for their confidence and honored by the opportunity to lead this remarkable organization of dedicated and talented employees,” Highley said. “Together with our board, members and staff, our association will bolster what remains our key focus — serving the needs of our members so they can deliver on their promise to rural communities across the West.”
The somewhat misnamed Tri-State has 43 member electric cooperatives and public power districts in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and New Mexico, delivering power to more than a million rural electricity consumers over nearly 200,000 square miles.
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