Blue Ridge Electric CEO to retire, successor named

Like his entire career, Jim Lovinggood’s final days as president and CEO of Blue Ridge Electric Co-op will not be brief.

After more than four decades of service to the co-op, he will retire at the end of the year. The board of trustees unanimously named Zachary Hinton as his successor — only the fourth in the cooperative’s history. Hinton will step into his new role in January 2027.

Lovinggood joined Blue Ridge in 1982. Throughout his 44-year tenure, he played a foundational role in the transition to digital mapping, a move that supplies data to engineering models the cooperative still uses today. He also oversaw the launch of Blue Ridge Security and Upcountry Fiber, according to a news release.

“This is the right time for my family and me to enter into this next phase of life, and it’s hard to put into words just how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to work with so many great people,” Lovinggood said in the news release. “I will have more time to reflect about my career here over these next months, but I’m excited for Zach to pick up the torch and carry this cooperative forward.”

In partnership with West Carolina, the cooperative launched Upcountry Fiber, a collaboration that brought high-speed fiber internet to the Blue Ridge territory.

Since assuming the role of president and CEO in 2018, Lovinggood has overseen a period of growth; the cooperative has nearly doubled in scale, now serving more than 75,000 meters across 7,500 miles of power lines, according to Blue Ridge Electric.

“We are thankful for Jim’s lifetime of service to Blue Ridge. Zach has proven himself a dedicated leader with a deep understanding of our members’ needs, and we are confident that the cooperative is well-positioned for its next era of growth under his leadership,” Board Chairman Len Talley said in the release.

Hinton, a Pickens native and Wofford College graduate, has served as senior vice president and chief of staff since February 2024. He is now acting executive vice president and chief operating officer. Since joining the co-op in 2015, he has managed a portfolio spanning economic development, facilities, operations, safety, purchasing and government relations.

He spearheaded the execution of the largest cooperative initiative in South Carolina: the rollout of Upcountry Fiber, a project that over the last five years has deployed more than 7,000 miles of fiber optic cable, helping bridge the digital divide for rural communities, the organization says.

“I will be eternally grateful to Jim for his mentorship and support, and our board’s vote of confidence in me to lead Blue Ridge Electric Co-op,” Hinton said in the release. “This co-op, our employees and members have blessed my family. I will continue to work hard every day to make our members and employees proud.”

Before Hinton joined Blue Ridge, he served as a congressional aide and spent several years with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office in the Uniform Patrol Division, Public Information Office and K-9 Unit.

Blue Ridge, which energized its first lines in 1941, provides power to communities in Anderson, Greenville, Oconee, Pickens and Spartanburg counties.