North Central Electric (NCE) has selected the CEO of a southern Illinois electric cooperative to be its sixth general manager in the cooperative’s 83-year history. 

North Central Board President Duane Frankart announced the hiring of Edward VanHoose, CEO of Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CECI) in Flora, Illinois, at the board’s October meeting. VanHoose will succeed Markus Bryant, who is retiring in January after 21 years with NCE.

After a national search conducted with the aid of a CEO search consultant, VanHoose was selected by a combined board made up of representatives from NCE and Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative of Wellington in Lorain County. The two cooperatives form a management and shared-services cooperative called Federated Energy Services Cooperative (FESCO). VanHoose will serve as FESCO president and, as a result, will serve as general manager for both cooperatives.

VanHoose joined the cooperatives in mid-November and will work with Bryant until Dec. 11, when he will officially assume the duties of FESCO president. Bryant will work with VanHoose on the management transition until his retirement date of Jan. 2, 2019.

“First, thank you to the trustees of FESCO, LMRE, and North Central for the opportunity to continue my career in service to the rural memberships of the respective cooperatives,” VanHoose said. “I appreciate the faith the FESCO board has placed in me as the incoming president. “My family and I are incredibly excited to begin our journey with both cooperatives, and we look forward to many years of service in northern Ohio.

“I am incredibly humbled to begin my journey here. I came here because I believe in the rural electric cooperative business model. FESCO embodies that model with continued focus upon the cooperative principles and the dedication to member service inherent within those principles. Specifically, the shared-services model employed by LMRE and NCE offers both memberships the opportunity to realize cost savings through economy of scales not available to either individually. 
“For those who don’t know, I was born in Cincinnati, and much of my family remains in the state, scattered from the north to the south. This position offers not only the opportunity to continue my service to rural America, but a homecoming back to Ohio. I look forward to seeing all of you and getting to know each community we serve.”

For the past four and a half years, VanHoose, 45, served as the CEO of CECI, where he oversaw all aspects of the cooperative. 
“We believe Mr. VanHoose brings a wealth of experience and education that will fit our cooperatives for the long term,” Frankart said. “Before he joined the statewide association, he owned an information technology (IT) company and had 40 employees. He impressed us when he said he considers all employees as extensions of his family. He looked each of us in the eye and said, “I want to come and work for you. I want this job.”

Prior to joining CECI, he worked as the IT manager for the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives (AIEC) based in Springfield, Illinois, where he advised AIEC’s 25 electric and eight telephone cooperative members on various technology issues, ranging from network security and smart grid deployment to broadband adoption. 

He also was involved at the statewide level in economic development and communications. VanHoose served on the Governor’s Broadband Deployment Council and the Steering Committee for the East Central Illinois Development Corporation.
For the past eight years, he has served on a national industry cybersecurity member advisory group, as well as other local civic organizations. He also served as the vice president of the Illinois Cooperative Worker’s Compensation Group. VanHoose represents his cooperative on the board of Southern Illinois Power Cooperative, a generation and transmission cooperative, as well as the boards of the National Renewable Cooperative Organization and ACES Power Marketing.
He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois-Springfield and his MBA at the University of Southern Indiana-Evansville.