Black River announces new CEO

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The Board of Trustees of Black River Electric Cooperative announced the appointment Tuesday morning of Charles R. Allen as chief executive officer. Allen replaces Charles H. Leaird, who is retiring at the end of the year after 32 years of service. Allen will officially begin in January. He has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from The Citadel in 1978. He is currently the vice president of engineering and operations at Black River. He began his tenure with the organization in 2004, coming to the cooperative from Progress Energy, where he served as operations manager in Sumter and project engineer, district and division engineering supervisor and distribution engineer in Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C. Allen is a founding member of the User Advisory Council and founder and chairman of Sumter's Utility Coordination Committee. He is on the Salvation Army advisory board, the Sumter Rotary Club board of directors and is a member of the Industrial Association for the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce. He is active in Grace Baptist Church, where he is the chairman of the finance committee, a substitute Sunday school teacher, a deacon and a member of the audio-visual committee. He is married to the former Carol J. Heaton of Taylors, and the couple has four adult children. Founded in 1938, Black River is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative that serves portions of Clarendon, Kershaw, Lee and Sumter counties. The cooperative currently has 67 employees who maintain 3,400 miles of energized line serving more than 31,000 meters. For more information, visit www.blackriver.coop.