Sparks named CEO

A Linton resident has been named chief executive office of the 19,200 member Utilities District of Western Indiana-Rural Electric Members Cooperative (REMC), based in rural Bloomfield.

The UDWI-REMC board of directors formally hired Brian L. Sparks general manager at a meeting Dec. 21. The 48 UDWI employees were notified of the leadership promotion Tuesday.

He succeeds Roger Davis, who died in August.

Sparks, who moved up the ranks with the Greene County-based electric cooperative, brings with him experience in a variety of aspects of the cooperative.

Sparks recalled that he was a lineman for a private construction company and he "took a big pay cut" to join REMC.

"I liked what the cooperative stood for," Sparks told The Daily World this morning.

The move proved to be a good career decision for Sparks.

In 1984, he began at UDWI as a tree trimmer and became a journeyman lineman two months later. After seven years as a lineman, he was appointed staking engineer and in 1995 was promoted to line superintendent. In 2000, he became Assistant Manager of Customer Relations and was promoted to Operations Manager in 2001.

Prior to his employment at UDWI, Sparks worked as a journeyman lineman at Miller Construction and is a 1981 graduate of the American Line Builder Apprentice Training.

Sparks, who was born in Linton and raised in Worthington, earned the NRECA supervisory training course certification in 1994. He graduated from the Rural Electric Leadership In Training Exchange (RELITE) program in December 1999 and completed the NRECA Robert I. Kabat Management Internship Program (MIP) in February 2001. In 2005, he graduated from Oakland City University with a Bachelor of Science degree and recently completed his Master's degree.

Sparks said he doesn't plan on making any major changes in the day-to-day operations.

"We're just trying to settle in," the new CEO noted.

He did mention UDWI is planning a major upgrade in the coming year of the Buena Vista substation near Standford that will make service more dependable to that area of Monroe County.

Sparks and his wife, Monica, have lived in Linton since 1985.

They are the parents to four children -- 15-year-old Ben, who is a freshman at Linton-Stockton High School; 17-year-old Brian, who is a junior at Linton-Stockton High; Candi, who is a hairstylist in Evansville and Stephen, who works for Aramark, also in Evansville.

The Bloomfield-based rural electric company, with more than 2,770 miles of power line in 11 counties, is a member of the Hoosier Energy Power Network and is the fourth-largest electric cooperative in southern Indiana. UDWI serves customers in Clay, Daviess, Greene, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Owen, Putnam, Sullivan, and Vigo counties.

UDWI is part owner of Hoosier Energy REC, Inc., a generation and transmission cooperative with headquarters in Bloomington. Hoosier Energy serves more than 200,000 consumers in 48 southern and central Indiana counties.