Senate approves TVA board nomination by President Trump
From STAFF REPORTS
Marshall County businessman Randy Jones was sworn to serve on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Board of Directors Friday in a ceremony at the Guntersville Dam.
Jones was one of four new board members confirmed by the Senate last mont, along with several other positions in the government. He was confirmed in a 53-43 party-line vote.
President Donald Trump nominated Jones, a Marshall County businessman, to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority last summer, urging the Senate to act quickly to confirm him and other nominees to give the board a quorum.
Only three of the nine seats on the TVA board were filled at the time.
“Randy is a proud business owner and a civic servant of north Alabama,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at the time of the nomination.
“Over 45 years, he’s started his own insurance agency and has grown it substantially over the years, making him a big player in the state of Alabama.”
Tuberville noted Jones’ 17 years of service on the Guntersville Electric Board, saying the system grew by $12.8 million while keeping debt low. Jones is also chairman of the board of trustees at Jacksonville State University, his alma mater.
“Mr. Jones’ strong background in business and civil service sets him up to be a valuable board member of the TVA,” Tuberville said.
Jones started his Nationwide insurance agency in 1978. It’s now at 14 locations across three states. In 1999, Jones became Nationwide’s youngest inductee into the President’s Conference Hall of Fame. He has been the company’s Alabama Agent of the Year 28 times.
Randy Jones Insurance Agency merged with The Leavitt Group in 2012 to become Randy Jones and Associates.
In addition to serving on the JSU board, Jones serves on the state Certificate of Need board, the boards of directors for the Business Council of Alabama and Operation Song, and as a member of the Renewal Commission of Alabama.
He is a director emeritus of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame board and a 48-year member of the Albertville Rotary Club with two terms of service as president.
TVA board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to five-year terms
The board’s current members are Chairman Bill Renick of Mississippi, Bobby Klein of Tennessee and Adam Wade White of Kentucky.
Also added to the board were Mitch Graves and Jeff Hagood of Tennessee and Arthur Graham of Florida.
Newly sworn-in Tennessee Valley Authority Director Randy Jones, left, speaks in the control room of the Guntersville Dam on Friday with TVA’s Vice President of River Operations Tom Barnett (to the immediate left of Jones) and several Guntersville Dam employees. Jones, of Guntersville, was sworn in after his approval to the board by the Senate. See more, Page 2. Special to The Leader
