Board of Director Candidates

The following candidates are running for a seat on the Piedmont Electric board of directors. Once elected, these individuals will serve a three year term helping govern the cooperative. A brief biography is included below for each candidate. Voting instructions can be found here.

District 1

DAVID POYTHRESS (DISTRICT 1) David is a Town of Carrboro retiree, where he managed municipal infrastructure maintenance and planning. David is a Piedmont member of 31 years, has earned Credentialed Cooperative Director and Board Leadership certifications, and serves as Piedmont’s board secretary. “As a cooperative director, I believe it is essential to provide safe, affordable and reliable electric service while continuing to upgrade our electrical grid to meet our member-owners’ expectations for grid resiliency, outage notification, outage restoration and providing sustainable energy to the communities we serve.”

BERNARD PURCELL (DISTRICT 1) Bernard is a Director of Mergers & Acquisitions at Affordable Care. As a member of the board, he would further the mission of providing reliable and economical electricity to PEMC members in service of building a better community. Mr. Purcell’s professional pursuits have focused on supply chain, capital allocation and strategic planning. He served as treasurer of the Electrical Association of Philadelphia from 2016-2018. Mr. Purcell has an MBA from Duke and a BS in Engineering from Drexel. He relocated his family to Hillsborough in 2019 and is thoroughly enjoying North Carolina.

DISTRICT 2

UNOPPOSED

RANDY KINLEY (DISTRICT 2) Randy has been a member of Piedmont Electric for 32 years and has served on the board of directors for 10 years. He has earned his Credentialed Cooperative Director, Board Leadership and Director Gold education certificates. He has traveled with Piedmont Electric staff to Washington, D.C. and Raleigh to advocate issues for cost control. He and his wife Diane reside in the Hebron community of Orange County. They have four children. He retired from Honda with 29 years of service. Randy is a member of Eastside Baptist Church in Mebane where he serves as song leader and Sunday School teacher.

DISTRICT 5

UNOPPOSED

STEVEN P. BAILEY (DISTRICT 5) Steven, a member of Piedmont Electric for 22 years, resides in the Woodsdale Community of Person County with his wife, Ashley, and three children Sam, Susan Claire, and Margaret. He has served on the board of directors for 3 years and is a Credentialed Cooperative Director. Steven is a civil engineer employed by North Carolina Wildlife and in his career has designed and managed projects for the public and private sector. He is a member of Long Memorial United Methodist Church where he has served in various capacities, including the Trustees, Finance Committee and Administrative Council.