Directors Elected, Chief Operating Officer Announced at Annual Meeting

For Immediate Release

Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener

West Jefferson, North Carolina (June 11, 2005) – Four directors were elected to the board of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation today during the cooperative’s Annual Membership Meeting held at Ashe County High School.

Re-elected to serve three-year terms on the board were: David Eggers of Caldwell district, Clayton Cooke of Watauga district; Jackie Blackburn of Ashe district; and Martha McKnight of Alleghany district.

During the meeting, President John Woodruff welcomed the crowd of approximately 1,500 and was followed by Jeff Joines, secretary-treasurer, who reported that the cooperative is in sound financial condition and remains one of the strongest cooperatives in the nation.

Chief Financial Officer Lee Chase reaffirmed that message, adding that Blue Ridge Electric retired $1.1 million in capital credits to members in December, providing additional savings for the member-owners of the cooperative.

During the meeting, Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson recognized retiring senior vice president of distribution services, Grant “Bud” Ayers. Ayers will retire in July after nearly 39 years with Blue Ridge Electric. “Bud has done an outstanding job for the cooperative and its members, and has kept the lights burning bright,” Johnson said.

Johnson explained that with the retirement of Ayers, and upcoming retirement of two other two senior level staff members in the next two to three years, a restructuring of the organization is taking place and a chief operating officer has been hired.

Johnson introduced the cooperative’s new chief operating officer, James “Lee” Layton and his wife Becky, who were in attendance. Layton will begin his duties with Blue Ridge Electric on July 18 after a 23-year career with Carroll Electric Membership Corporation in Carrollton, Georgia, where he is leaving as vice president of system operations. Layton will report to Johnson and will oversee the areas of system operations, electric plant, customer service and member relations. “Lee has a deep passion for customer service and he will continue the Blue Ridge Electric tradition of providing our members with the highest reliability in electric service and personal touch customer care,” Johnson said.

In other comments, Johnson said that cooperative employees have been focused on demonstrating value to member-owners. “Being a member-owned cooperative makes us a better company….more than anything, we want you to know that being a member makes a difference. We want to operate so that you know you’re more than a customer. We want you to know that you’re a member, and that membership matters greatly to us and provides benefits for you,” Johnson explained.

Johnson said the cooperative has been working on four strategic areas that demonstrate the cooperative difference: customer service, returning value to local communities by achieving the vision for Blue Ridge Energies, strengthening economic vitality of local communities, and becoming a preferred employer.

To deliver on customer service, the cooperative will continue striving to be among the top performers in the nation on customer satisfaction surveys. It will also focus on long term reliable power supply at good prices. Excellent service reliability will be a priority and investments will continue to be made in the electric plant system as well as in technology to aid reliability.

The vision to continue growing the cooperative’s heating fuel and propane subsidiary, Blue Ridge Energies, LLC, will help support local communities in quality of life areas such as education and health care.

In strengthening economic development for the benefit of the communities served by the cooperative, Blue Ridge Electric will become more involved and provide greater assistance to help county leaders meet the challenge of bringing new jobs to the area.

“In order to get our first three objectives accomplished, it is absolutely critical for us to have top-notch employees,” Johnson said. “That’s why our fourth objective is to be a preferred employer—to be a company where the best want to work—because we have a lot of work to accomplish for the area we all call home.”

To learn about more Blue Ridge Electric’s year 2004 operations, see its annual report on-line at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.

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