Published Saturday, December 06, 2008

Whiteside retiring as CEO of EMC

The Times-Herald

Michael Whiteside, president and CEO of Coweta-Fayette EMC for 25 years, will retire at the end of December.

A reception was held at the Wyndham Hotel in Peachtree City last week to recognize Whiteside's three decades of service.

"I came to the EMC in June of 1974 as an administrative assistant," Whiteside said. "At that time, we had 11,500 meters. We have 73,000 today."

The technology has changed drastically over that span of time, Whiteside said.

"A lot of things have happened. It used to be that, if you had an outage, we had to send someone out to one of the substations to see what the problem was. Our linemen's numbers were actually printed in the phone book, and you could find out who was on standby. It was just different back then. The population was a lot less and we had fewer members."

Today an answering service directs those calls in a more efficient, streamlined manner, he said.

"In the late 1970s and early '80s we set up our own dispatch center to get the job done," Whiteside said. "I remember that there used to be only one traffic signal between Newnan and Fayetteville. You could get there pretty quickly. Things have changed."

During Whiteside's tenure, the number of employees at Coweta-Fayette EMC has grown from 60 to 186, plus another 75 contractor employees.

Any success the EMC has experienced during his tenure is more attributable to the employees than to him, Whiteside said.

"I certainly can't take credit for it," he said.

He said a woman in Tyrone recently installed solar panels on her home to produce energy. She was asked at the unveiling if she planned to install batteries in her home to capture excess energy to use at night or when the clouds appeared.

"She said that her electricity is hardly ever off because of EMC," which functions as her backup, Whiteside said.

"I think that tells you something about our quality of service," he said. "It's a tribute to our staff and to our employees."

Following his graduation from Middle Georgia College, Whiteside, a Cochran native, began his career at a consulting and engineering firm in Atlanta that often worked with the EMC co-ops.

"I did design work for distribution systems and some rate analysis," Whiteside said.

When he and his wife, Lynn, moved to Newnan in 1972 to start a family, he began to look for a position that could eliminate his daily commute to Atlanta.

"I commuted for two years to downtown Atlanta, and I got tired of leaving at 6:45 in the morning," he said. "Coweta-Fayette EMC had an opening, and it cut my commute time from two hours to 10 minutes."

Whiteside said it has been his pleasure not only to serve as CEO but also as president of both the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce and the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. At the Coweta Chamber, Whiteside also was a chair of the Vision 2020 program.

Whiteside said that he's happy to have made Coweta County his home.

"What drew me here was the rural community, and the great city of Newnan," said Whiteside. "You get all the services you'd have in a city, but it still maintains this rural flavor. All my kids walked to school at Elm Street. The community has changed during that time, and we've seen a lot of growth. But I believe we are still a family-friendly community, even through we've tripled in size. Nothing's perfect, of course, but I think you make it what you want it to be. It's a great community we have here. So even after my retirement, we'll be staying here."

Although he does plan to get in some extra time on the golf course, Whiteside will be plenty busy after his Dec. 31 retirement date.

"I'm going to do some consulting," he said. He is especially interested in helping communities develop renewable energy. His five children and 12 grandchildren will also keep him busy.

Whiteside has great faith in Tony Sinclair, who will be taking the helm following his retirement.

Whiteside said he's reluctant to offer any advice, but he does pass along two thoughts for his successors to consider.

"We need to make sure we stay connected to our member owners. That should always be a high priority," he said. "We need to show that we care about them.

"But there is one other thing. It's the same advice someone gave me when I became the CEO. You have all these ideas and this vision, I was told. But think about how slow you need to go, and then go half that fast. Because we have a great staff here at the EMC, great employees with a wealth of knowledge. We need to honor their commitment, too."